Twitter appoints Vinay Prakash as new Resident Grievance Officer; users can contact him via email now

The row between US messenger app Twitter and the government here over not following the new IT rules has been going on for weeks.

Twitter India hires its Resident Grievance Officer (REUTERS)

After weeks of controversy, over its alleged failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, Twitter has finally, appointed its Resident Grievance Officer for India. This is as per its website. Twitter has named Vinay Prakash as its Resident Grievance Officer here. However, the job is as yet unfinished as the new IT rules in India, mandate that three key personnel - chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer - have to be appointed by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users. On top of that they have to be an Indian resident.

Users can contact Prakash using an email ID listed on the page, which states "Twitter can be contacted in India at the following address: 4th Floor, The Estate, 121 Dickenson Road, Bangalore 560 042." Twitter had previously appointed Dharmendra Chatur as interim resident grievance officer for India, but he had quit last month, reports PTI.

Even as 2 of its 3 critical appointments are pending, Twitter has fulfilled another key requirement under the IT rules that came into effect on May 26. The company has published its compliance report for the period of May 26, 2021, to June 25, 2021.

All this action follow an ongoing row with the government over whether Twitter was following new social media rules or not. The government has confronted Twitter over deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country's new IT rules, despite repeated reminders. Twitter had said the new IT rules were against the Constitution.

The row had escalated to a point where Twitter even lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India. That meant it would be held responsible for users posting any unlawful content on Twitter.

That led to filing of 2 cases against Twitter in connection with certain tweets alleging assault on a Muslim man and over child pornography in June.