Amid Tussle With Centre, Twitter India Appoints Vinay Prakash As Resident Grievance Officer

Twitter India has appointed an Indian national as its officer for grievances redressal required under the new digital rules of the country.

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New Delhi: After a much long tussle with the Indian government, Twitter India has appointed Vinay Prakash as its resident grievance officer (RGO) for India, according to the company’s website.

The U.S.-based company has been in the eye of a storm over its alleged failure to comply with the new IT rules in India, which mandates, among other requirements, the appointment of three key personnel — chief compliance officer, nodal officer and grievance officer by social media platforms with over 50 lakh users. All three personnel have to be residents in India.

As per the information updated on Twitter’s website, Vinay Prakash is the RGO. Users can contact him using an email ID listed on the page.

“Twitter can be contacted in India at the following address: 4th Floor, The Estate, 121 Dickenson Road, Bangalore 560 042,” the page further said.

Notably, Twitter's interim resident grievance officer for India Dharmendra Chatur had quit in June, leaving the micro-blogging site without a grievance official as mandated by the new rules.

 Prakash’s name appears along with Jeremy Kessel, who is the Global Legal Policy Director, based in the U.S..

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court said the Central Government can initiate action against Twitter in accordance with the new IT rules in case of non-compliance even as the micro-blogging site submitted a timeline on the appointment process of officers as mandated while maintaining that it reserves the right to challenge the rules.

The company further said that it has hired a resident of India as its interim compliance officer, effective 6 July, and has communicated the development to the ministry of information technology.

(With PTI inputs)