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Social media giant Facebook on Monday named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its website. Users can contact her through an e-mail ID.
Additionally, users can also contact Facebook in India via post at at a New Delhi address.
The move follows the government announcing the new IT rules on May 26 requiring significant social media intermediaries — those with over 50 lakh users — to appoint a grievance officer, nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. And, as per the rules, these personnel have to be residing in India.
Minister of Electronics and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad in an interview with BusinessLine , also had said appointment of a grievance officer is a must at the earliest so that any complaints by users can be addressed within a span of 24 hours. Other officers such as the compliance officer or nodal officer can be hired later, he said.
‘Updating website’
Sources in Facebook have confirmed the development, and said the company was updating the details of the new grievance officers appointed, to replace the existing information on its platform.
However, they declined to divulge the background of Priya and her past positions, either in Facebook or elsewhere. A spokesperson at the company also declined to comment on the details.
Apart from Facebook, Google and WhatsApp have also recently updated their websites to reflect the appointment of grievance officers as per the new social media rules.
Only micro-blogging site Twitter has still not announced any names or appointment of a grievance officer in India and according to sources, it has sought more time from the government to do so.
According to sources, Twitter has said that it intends to comply with the rules but needs more time due to the pandemic situation in India.
This response from the company comes after MeitY on Saturday gave “one last notice” on the new rules.
MeitY had said that twitter’s refusal to comply with the rules demonstrates “lack of commitment and efforts towards providing a safe experience for the people of India on its platform”.
When contacted MeitY, officials did not confirm about the new demand from Twitter, and a spokesperson at Twitter India also declined to comment.
‘Will continue dialogue’
A spokesperson at Twitter said, “Twitter has been and remains deeply committed to India, and serving the vital public conversation taking place on the service. We have assured the government of India that Twitter is making every effort to comply with the new Guidelines, and an overview on our progress has been duly shared. We will continue our constructive dialogue with the Indian government.”
The spokesperson declined to divulge more on the move.
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