Twitter, Google, FB name grievance officers in India

Social media companies, including Twitter, Google and Facebook, have started updating the names of their grievance officers, as required by the new Information Technology Rules, 2021.

While Twitter India appointed Dharmendra Chatur as its interim resident grievance officer for India, based in Bengaluru, Whatsapp named Paresh B Lal as its grievance officer, based in Hyderabad.

"To contact the grievance officer, you can send an email with your complaint or concern and sign with an electronic signature. If you're contacting us about a specific account, include your phone number in full international format, including the country code," Whatsapp said on its website.

Google also said, “To serve any summons or notices in civil proceedings against Google LLC in India”, Joe Grier, based in Mountain View, California, can be contacted.

Facebook has put up Julie Duvall, based in Menlo Park, California, as the contact person on its website.

Apple, whose imessage service is also end-to-end encrypted, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Signal, the messaging service touted as the most popular alternative to Whatsapp, also did not respond. The new IT Rules, 2021, which came into effect on May 25, require intermediaries like Google, Facebook, Twitter and so on, to "prominently publish on its website, mobile-based application or both, as the case may be, the name of the grievance officer and his contact details as well as mechanism by which a user or a victim may make a complaint against violation of the provisions of this rule or any other matters pertaining to the computer resources made available by it.”

Last week, Whatsapp filed a legal challenge against the Centre, protesting before the Delhi High Court the new IT rules that would require messaging services to “trace” the origin of particular messages.