- Monday, February 24, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
DAYS after it designated a chief compliance officer, social media giant Twitter has appointed a resident grievance officer (RGO) and released its first India Transparency Report to meet new information technology rules.
The US firm has listed Vinay Prakash as the new grievance officer and provided contact details and procedure for users to report potential violations of its rules and terms. Twitter had earlier appointed Dharmendra Chatur as its interim grievance officer for India after the new information technology rules came into force on May 26.
However, he stepped down within weeks of taking over the key role.
California-based Jeremy Kessel, who is Twitter’s global legal policy director, was named as India’s grievance redressal officer on the platform’s website but the appointment did not meet the requirements of the information technology rules that clearly say that the key officers, including grievance officer, chief compliance officer and nodal officer, must be Indian residents.
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On Sunday (11), Twitter’s website showed Prakash as its RGO. Users can contact him through 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 says.
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Prakash’s name appears along with Kessel. Twitter did not share additional details of the new RGO.
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In Twitter’s India Transparency Report: User Grievances and Proactive Monitoring July 2021 report, the social media giant said it had received 94 grievances and “actioned” 133 URLs between May 26 and June 25, 2021. It said the majority of complaints received via Grievance Officer – India channel during the reported period fell under categories like defamation (20), Abuse/Harassment (6), Sensitive Adult Content (4), Impersonation and privacy infringement (3 each), IP-related Infringement (1), and Misinformation/Synthetic and Manipulated Media (1).
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Besides, Twitter also processed 56 grievances which were appealing Twitter account suspensions. In a separate category – ‘Proactive Monitoring Data’, the microblogging site said 18,385 accounts were suspended over the issue of Child Sexual Exploitation, Non-Consensual Nudity, and similar content, while 4,179 accounts were suspended for Promotion of Terrorism.
Twitter has found itself under the scanner in the recent months as the Indian government accused it of not complying with its new information technology rules. The social media platform also faced a number of accusations related to issues like circulation of controversial videos, displaying a wrong map of India and allowing child pornography content on its site.
