New Delhi: A plea has been moved in the Delhi High Court against the non-compliance by Twitter India and Twitter Inc with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021).
The plea has been moved advocate Amit Acharya urged the High Court to challenge course to the Centre to go obligatory instruction to Twitter India and Twitter Inc to nominate resident grievance officer below Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 with none delay.
The plea contended that Twitter is a “Significant Social Media Intermediary” (SSMI) as laid down below the IT Rules, 2021 and subsequently should guarantee compliance with the statutory duties imposed upon it by the provisions of those rules. The plea contended that in a nutshell, each important social media middleman has duty not solely to nominate a resident grievance officer who will act as single level authority for receiving and disposing off complaints inside fastened time however may also obtain and acknowledge any order, discover and course issued by the competent authorities.
“It is pertinent to mention that Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 has come into force from February 25, and Respondent No. 1 (Centre) had given 3 months to every SSMI to comply with these Rules and these three months period got over on May 25. but Respondent No. 2 and 3 has separately & jointly failed to appoint any Resident Grievance Officer to redress the complaints of its users with regard to the violation of the provisions of the aforesaid Rules”, stated the plea.
The petitioner claimed whereas “scrolling his Twitter on May 26, 2021,” he discovered allegedly “defamatory, false and untrue tweets” by two people. The plea contended that as per the rules, the petitioner tried to search for the resident grievance officer to lodge a grievance, nevertheless, he discovered no particulars. The plea argued that it is a clear violation of Sub-Rule 2(a) of Rule 3 which says that the middleman shall prominently publish on its web site, cellular primarily based utility or each, because the case could also be, the identify of the grievance officer and his contact particulars. The petitioner claimed he has been disadvantaged of his statutory proper to lodge grievance earlier than the involved officer.
The plea urged the court docket to challenge course against Centre and Twitter to discharge their government, statutory and all different obligations in relation to Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules 2021 with none delay.
Twitter had raised considerations over the ‘potential risk’ to freedom of speech and the new IT rules have components that inhibit free dialog. The Centre on Thursday hit again laborious at Twitter’s, saying that the US-based microblogging platform is attempting to dictate its phrases in India, and in addition desires to undermine the nation’s authorized system.
