The microblogging platform in its response to the government following the “last notice” sent on Saturday, said that the company is hiring a chief compliance officer in a few days

Giving into the pressure by the government, Twitter said it has appointed officials temporarily to comply with the new IT rules and sought time to hire permanent staff as well as opening an office in the country. It has cited the Covid pandemic as the reason for the delay.

The microblogging platform in its response to the government following the “last notice” sent on Saturday, said that the company is hiring a chief compliance officer in a few days and latest within a week.

“We assure you that this is an interim arrangement and that we are already making all possible efforts to put in place a framework for employees of Twitter, Inc. to take on these roles,” Twitter wrote in the letter to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Meity), which was reviewed by ET. “We request you to please provide us with additional time to recruit and appoint permanent employees to these roles”.

ET had reported on Tuesday that Twitter had responded to the government after India gave an ultimatum to the microblogging platform to comply with the new IT rules.

Meanwhile, on the issue of blocking the account of Punjabi singer JazzyB by Twitter on request by the government, official sources said that it was done by the Ministry of Home Affairs and under section 69A of the Information Technology Act, 2000. “This handle was being used to post inflammatory posts provoking communal sentiments by glorifying Sikh militancy in Punjab and pro-Khalistan feelings on the anniversary of Operation Blue Star. His posts also used the images of Jarnail Singh Bhindrawala to arouse communal sentiments that could pose threat to public order. His Tweets also openly supported Lakha Sidhana- the main perpetrator behind the “Red Fort” incident of 26th January, 2021,” said a senior government official.

He added that since the singer is a social media influencer, such posts could lead to a potential law and order problem. “Therefore, in public interest and to ensure that no law and order issue is created, the Home Ministry requested the Ministry to block his Twitter handle.”

The government on Saturday has sent a final notice to Twitter to comply with the new Intermediary Guidelines, failing which the micro-blogging platform will lose its intermediary status in the country and be liable for the content on its platform under the IT Act and the Indian Penal Code.

In a letter sent by the ministry of electronics and IT on Saturday, the government has said that despite two warnings in the past and a week since the new IT Rules came into effect, the company has failed to appoint a Chief Compliance Office, a Nodal Officer and a Grievance Officer who is on the rolls of Twitter in India. The company has given a contact of a law firm as its physical address in India, claimed the letter which is not as per the rules.

The company also said that “Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new Guidelines… We understand the importance of these regulations and have endeavored in good faith to comply with the Guidelines, including with respect to hiring personnel in India.” It added that the guidelines were notified on 25th February, 2021, and the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has made it difficult to make “certain arrangements necessary to comply with the Guidelines within the stipulated time-frame”.

It said that similar to other significant social media intermediaries (SSMIS) operating in India, it has appointed a Nodal Contact Person (NCP) and a Resident Grievance Officer (RGO) on a contractual basis while the process of recruitment in ongoing to fill the positions on a permanent basis.

“In addition, we are in advanced stages of finalizing the appointment to the role of Chief Compliance Officer and we plan to provide additional details to you in the next several days, and at the latest within a week.”

It has also sought a meeting with the officials over video conferencing to discuss this matter.

For Twitter, India has the third largest user base after the US and Japan. As of January, nearly 17.5 million people from the country were on the microblogging platform, according to data platform Statista. The company has 192 million daily active users globally.

Twitter in April had hired former Uber executive Apurva Dalal to head its engineering centre in Bengaluru and called the country a priority market and one of the fastest growing globally.