NEW DELHI, INDIA – According to a court filing on Thursday, Twitter Inc’s India unit has chosen an interim chief compliance officer and will shortly select two other executives to comply with the country’s new IT standards. The IT laws, which went into effect at the end of May, are intended at regulating social media material and requiring companies to respond more quickly to legal requests for the removal of posts and the exchange of information about message originators.
In a court filing earlier this week, the Indian government stated that Twitter no longer had liability protection against user-generated content in India due to the company’s failure to follow the new guidelines.
The submission came as part of a case brought against Twitter by a user who wished to protest about some allegedly defamatory posts on the site and claimed that the firm was not following new IT standards, which include the employment of certain new executives.
Twitter said in a June 8 filing that it would strive to fill the nodal contact person’s post on an interim basis within two weeks and would appoint an interim grievance officer on or before July 11.
Twitter said it had listed job postings for all three roles and will endeavor to make an offer of employment to resident Indians within eight weeks, as required by law.
“While Twitter strives to comply with the 2021 Rules, Twitter reserved the right to question the legality, validity… of the Rules,” according to the filing.
The corporation, based in San Francisco, California, is establishing a liaison office in India, according to the statement.
A request for comment from Twitter was not returned.
India’s technology ministry has already chastised Twitter for breaking the law on purpose, and has stated that all social media companies must follow the new laws.
In recent weeks, Indian police have brought at least five cases against Twitter or its staff as tensions between the US corporation and authorities have grown.
Manish Maheshwari, the CEO of Twitter India, has been identified in complaints filed by police in two Indian states. After a lower court spared Maheshwari from arrest on allegations that the platform was used to propagate hate, the state of Uttar Pradesh has challenged in the Supreme Court a ban on police action against him. (Sankalp Phartiyal contributed reporting; Kim Coghill and Elaine Hardcastle edited the piece.)/n
