A plea has been filed in the High Court of Delhi against Twitter for alleged non-compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
The plea has sought direction from the Union of India to pass necessary instructions to Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 without any delay.
The petitioner said that he had filed a petition seeking an appropriate writ or instruction against the respondent Centre Government and Twitter to perform its statutory & executive duty under Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.
According to Rule 4 (c) of the IT Rule, every Significant Social Media Intermediary has to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer, who shall, subject to clause (b), be responsible for the functions referred to in sub-rule (2) of rule 3, stated the petition.
The petition has been filed by Amit Acharya, a practicing Advocate in the Apex Court and Delhi HC, through his lawyers Akash Vajpai & Manish Kumar.
The plea said that every significant social media intermediary has the responsibility to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer (employee of SSMI who should be resident in India) who will act as a single point authority for receiving & disposing of complaints within a fixed time.
They are also responsible for receiving & acknowledging any order, notice & direction issued by the appropriate government/competent authority or court of competent jurisdiction.
Every SSMI (significant social media intermediary) will also develop a mechanism for receipt of a complaint in relation to violation of any provision under the aforesaid rule & will provide a ticket number through which every complainant would be able to track the status of their complaint.
Moreover, it is also the responsibility of the SEM to provide a reason for any action taken or not taken while disposing of such complaints, the petitioner said.
He also pointed out that the Information Technology (Intermediary
Guidelines & Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 has come into
force from February 25, & the respondent Centre had given three
months to every SSMI to comply with these Rules.
This three-month period got over on May 25 but respondent Twitter has
separately & jointly failed to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer
to redress the complaints of its users with regard to the violation of
the provisions of the aforesaid Rules, the petitioner said.
He added that "At this juncture it is also important to mention that Respondent No 2 & 3 (Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc) not only failed to appoint Resident Grievance Officer but has also not appointed Nodal officer & Chief Compliance Officer mentioned under Rules 4 of the IT Rules, 2021".
He also apprised the Court that he is also a subscriber & user of the microblogging website & while scrolling on May 26, found some tweets of two individuals defamatory, false & untrue. When he tried to look for a Resident Grievance Officer to register a complaint against the alleged tweets, he found no details, which is a clear violation of subrule 2(a) of Rule 3 which says - The intermediary shall prominently publish on its website, mobile-based application or both, as the case may be, the name of the Grievance Officer & his contact details.
Therefore, the petitioner urged the Court to issue direction to Union of India to pass necessary instruction/order to Twitter to appoint Resident Grievance Officer under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 without delay.
He also sought an appropriate direction against the respondent to discharge their executive, statutory & all other obligations in relation to Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 without any delay.
The petitioner further sought direction to Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc to implement Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines & Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 in true letter.
SOURCE ; ANI NEWS
Social media is young.
Social media raises questions.
Social media is not satisfied with an answer.
Social media looks at the big picture.
Social media is interested in every detail.
social media is curious.
Social media is free.
Social media is irreplaceable.
But never irrelevant.
Social media is you.
(With input from news agency language)
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