The Delhi High Court on Thursday told Twitter that it would not protect the social media platform against legal proceedings if it does not comply with the social media rules introduced by the Centre, Live Law reported.
Justice Rekha Palli made the observation after Twitter told the High Court that it will require eight weeks to appoint a grievance officer in compliance with the new rules, the Hindustan Times reported.
Twitter told the court that it had already appointed an Indian resident as the interim chief compliance officer and will choose a nodal official soon, according to the Hindustan Times. The company informed the court that it will unveil its first compliance report on July 11, NDTV reported.
“While Twitter is striving to comply with the 2021 rules, Twitter reserves its right to challenge the legality, validity, and vires of the rules,” it said, according to the Hindustan Times.
Senior Advocate Sajjan Poovayya, appearing for Twitter on Thursday, apprised the court about a memo filed by the social media platform detailing the timeline to appoint the grievance redressal officer.
The court refused to give eight weeks’ time to Twitter and said it would not protect the company for failing to comply with the rules.
Poovayya then clarified that he was not seeking any protection. “There is no penalty [for not complying with the rules]...The consequence is that I will no more enjoy the protection I did as a social media intermediary,” he submitted.
The court also asked why the chief compliance officer was an “interim” appointment. To this, Poovayya said: “It’s called interim because it is from an interim office address in Bengaluru. This is because we are still in the process of establishing a liaison office which will be a permanent address.”
The court took note of the fact that Twitter made its submission seeking eight weeks’ time in a memo signed by its counsel, and not through an affidavit. Accordingly, the court told Twitter to file a physical affidavit on the matter within two weeks and a scanned copy of the document by July 11, Live Law reported.
Twitter’s response on Thursday came a day after the court said it could not take as long as it wanted to appoint the official according to the Centre’s regulations.
Apart from grievance officers, the government has directed social media platforms to appoint officers to ensure compliance with its rules and to coordinate with law enforcement agencies. Social media platforms with over 50 lakh users are also required to help identify the originators of messages upon the government’s request.
The new IT rules are a sweeping set of regulations – which were announced in February and became effective in May – framed to regulate social media companies, streaming and digital news content, virtually bringing them, for the first time, under the ambit of government supervision.
The regulations have created tensions between the Centre and and Twitter. The Centre has repeatedly criticised Twitter for not fully complying with the new IT rules. It told the Delhi High Court on Monday that Twitter had lost its “safe harbour immunity” because of that. Twitter will be stripped of the protection social media websites have against legal proceedings for unlawful content posted by users if the court accepts the Centre’s submission.
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