In final stage of appointing grievance officer, says Twitter

New Delhi, July 03: Twitter Inc on Saturday informed Delhi high court that the company is in the the final stages of appointing a Resident Grievance Officer, after their interim Resident Grievance Officer withdrew his candidature on June 21.

Micro-blogging platform Twitter has been at loggerheads with the government over various issues, including during the farmers'' protest in January and later when it tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as "manipulated media", drawing a sharp rebuke from the Centre.

Twitter recently named California-based Jeremy Kessel as India''s grievance redressal officer on the platform''s website -- although the appointment does not meet the requirements of new IT rules that clearly mandate key officers including the grievance officer, to be resident in India.

Notably, Twitter has lost its legal shield as an intermediary in India, becoming liable for users posting any unlawful content.

Amid the standoff with the government over compliance with new IT rules, the Twitter website on Monday had displayed a wrong map of India that showed Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh as separate country.

Twitter had removed the wrong map later that day, after facing heavy backlash from netizens.

Even in the backdrop of heightened strained relations with the Indian government, Twitter recently briefly blocked IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad from accessing his own account over alleged violation of US copyright law -- a move that was immediately slammed by the minister as being arbitrary and in gross violation of IT rules.

Twitter and the government have been on a collision course on multiple issues in the past months as well, including during the farmers'' protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as "manipulated media", drawing a sharp rebuke from the Centre.

All significant social media companies, with over 50 lakh user base, will have to appoint a chief compliance officer, a nodal contact person and a grievance officer. All of them have to be resident in India.