Plea before Delhi High Court seeks compliance by Twitter with IT Rules 2021; cites tweets by Mahua Moitra, Swati Chaturvedi

A petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Union of India to direct Twitter Inc to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer as required under Rule 4 of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 without any delay..The Information Technology (Guidelines for intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (IT Rules, 2021) promulgated by the Union Ministry of Electronics & Information and Technology (MEITY) came into force from February 25 this year, following which a period of three months was given to every 'significant social media intermediary' (SSMI) to comply with the Rules. This three-month period expired three days ago on May 25..The IT Rules define 'significant social media intermediary' as social media with users above the threshold notified by the Central government.A 'significant social media intermediary' has some additional obligations in comparison to other social media intermediaries..It was the petitioner's contention that Twitter has not only failed to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer as required under the IT Rules, but also a Nodal Officer and a Chief Compliance Officer as mentioned under Rule 4 of the IT Rules. .The petitioner, a Twitter user, submitted that he had come across two objectionable tweets by Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Mahua Moitra and journalist Swati Chaturvedi, who are verified users on the platform..On May 25, Moitra had tweeted:"Welcome to our Susu Potty Republic! Drink Gaumutra, smear cowdung & flush the rule of law down the toilet @DelhiPolice issue notice to Twitter & land up in their offices for rightly calling out @BJP’s fake document as manipulated media. Go figure.".The tweet posted by Chaturvedi on May 26 said:"If Bobde had been Chief Justice of the Supreme Court Modi would have been able to appoint his favourite Gujarat IPS, official Rakesh Asthana. What a huge difference a CJI who follows the law makes.".With an intent to file a complaint against the tweets, the petitioner tried to look for the Resident Grievance Officer, but found no details of the same on Twitter's website..Moreover, the petitioner found that Twitter has appointed a US resident named Jeremy Kessel as Grievance Officer, which could not be considered as implementation of the IT Rules in its true spirit..The petitioner thus claimed that he has been deprived of his statutory right to lodge a complaint and is left remediless..He placed reliance on Rule 4(c) of the IT Rules to contend that every SSMI has to appoint a Resident Grievance Officer, who shall, subject to clause (b), be responsible for Grievance redressal mechanism as referred to in sub-rule (2) of rule 3. .Rule 4 also puts additional due diligence on significant social media intermediary (who have more than 50 lakhs users or subscribers in India), the petitioner submitted. .A Resident Grievance Officer, an employee of the SSMI who should be a resident of India, will act as single point authority for receiving and disposing off complaints within a fixed time, the petitioner added. .The Information Technology Rules 2021: An assault on Privacy as we know it.The IT Rules regulate the functioning of online media portals and publishers, over-the-top (OTT platforms), and social media intermediaries.The Rules framed pursuant to the powers conferred by Section 79(2)(c) and Section 69A(2) of the Information Technology Act, 2000 provides for classification of films and other entertainment programmes, including web series, bring digital news platforms within the ambit of regulations covering print and electronic media and attempts to rein in social media intermediaries.The Rules mandate that social media intermediary should 'enable the identification of the first originator of the information on its computer, as "may be required by a judicial or or an order passed by the Competent authority" and such an order shall only be passed for the purposes of prevention, detection, investigation, prosecution or punishment of an offence related to the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order.If also provided that the significant social media intermediary "shall have a physical contact address in India published on its website or mobile based Internet application or both, as the case may be, for the purposes of receiving the communication addressed to it."The rules and regulations, privacy policy or user agreement of the intermediary should inform the user of computer resource not to host, display, upload, modify, publish, transmit, store, update or share any information that is inter alia, obscene, pornographic, paedophilic, threatens the unity, integrity, defence, security or Sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign States, or public order, or causes incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence or prevents investigation of any offence or is insulting any foreign States.