The Delhi High Court on Monday, 31 May 2021 during the hearing stated that the Twitter has to comply with the new Information Technology Rules 2021which is made for the digital media, if they have not explicitly been stayed by court.

A petition alleging that the twitter has not complied with Rule 4 of Information Technology Rules of 2021 was filled by a senior lawyer Amit Acharya through advocates Manish kumar & Akash Vajpai. Mr Acharya through his representative claimed that on May 26 he wanted to raise grievance against two verified users (Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra and Journalist Swati Chaturvedi) for their allegedly offensive and objectionable tweet. However he could not find the contract detail of resident grievance officer on the website of the micro-blogging site. This is when they got to know about the non compliance of IT Rule 2021 by Twitter. Then he decided to file a petition seeking compliance and appointment of Resident Grievance Officer without any further delay.

Twitter through senior advocate Sajan Poovayya responded that the Resident Grievance Officer was not appointed when the petition was filled but the same have been appointed on May 28 but they could not furnish the detail of appointment at the time of the hearing. He also said they will file an Affidavit in this matter.

Central government standing counsel Ripudaman Singh Bhardwaj disputed the claim of the Twitter and told the court that the micro-blogging site have not complied with the new IT Rule. He also sought the direction by court to Twitter and Centre to ensure the compliance of the new IT Rule. The Petitioner also contended that he also was unable to find detail of resident grievance officer.

The bench of Justice Rekha Patil after hearing both the side issued a notice to Twitter and gave it 3 weeks time to furnish detail of the appointment and the detail of compliance. The court also said that the Twitter has to comply with the new Information Technology Rules 2021which is made for the digital media, if they have not explicitly been stayed by court. This case now will come up for hearing on July 6 2021.

IT Rule 2021

The new IT rule came in effect on 25 February. From this day centre had given Three months to every social media platform to comply with new rules. Under the new rule they are asked to appoint a chief compliance officer from India, a Nodal Officer and a special resident grievance redressal officer. The officer will be responsible for addressing issues of public and government as well as will conduct due diligence. Twitter failed to do all of the above. In case of non-compliance social media platform may lose intermediary immunity. The new IT Rule classify social media sites in two category – (1)Social Media Intermediaries & (2)Significant Social Media Intermediaries (more than 50 lakh registered users)