Twitter appointed officers in compliance with new IT Rules: Centre
The Centre has
informed the Delhi High Court that Twitter has appointed
Chief Compliance Officer (CCO), Resident Grievance Officer (RGO), and Nodal
Contact Person in compliance with the new IT Rules.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), in
a short affidavit, said Twitter has
acknowledged that the personnel (CCO, Nodal Contact Person, and RGO) are
appointed as the company's employees and not as 'contingent workers'.
Twitter has
provided the names of the said appointed personnel and their respective
positions also. The said affidavit (of Twitter) mentions their employment start
date as August 4, 2021. Twitter has further enclosed their employment contracts
along with the said affidavit as proof of such appointments, the ministry said.
The court had on August 10 directed the Centre to file a
short affidavit in response to Twitter's affidavit in which the company had shown
compliance with IT Rules.
I submit that Twitter has appointed the personnel in compliance to
the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics
Code) Rules, 2021 hereinafter referred as IT Rules, 2021, N Samaya Balan,
working as Scientist-E in the Cyber Law Group with the MEITY, said in the
affidavit.
Justice Rekha Palli, who was hearing a petition alleging
non-compliance of IT Rules by the US-based microblogging site, is scheduled to
hear the matter on October 5.
The Centre's affidavit further said the IT Rules, 2021 is a law of
the land and Twitter is mandatorily required to comply with the IT Rules 2021
in its entirety.
Any non-compliance amounts to a breach of the provisions of the IT
Rules, 2021 thereby leading to Twitter losing its immunity conferred under
section 79(I) of the IT Act, 2000.
The exemptions conferred on intermediaries under section 79(I) is
a conditional exemption subject to the intermediary satisfying the conditions
under sections 79(2) and 79(3). Further, as per rule 7, failure to observe the
IT Rules, 2021 will result in the non-applicability of Section 79(1) of the IT
Act, 2000 to such an intermediary and the intermediary shall become liable for
any punishment under any law for the time being in force in respect of the
offending content, it said.
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