Twitter posts job openings for grievance, nodal, compliance officers in India

Microblogging platform Twitter is looking to appoint key officials in its India team, more than two weeks after a mandatory requirement for such officers to be appointed under India’s new social media rules kicked in. 

Twitter has posted job listings for Resident Grievance Officer, Nodal Officer and Chief Compliance Officer in India — key requisites of being compliant with the new social media rules.  

Twitter posted the job listings for these positions based in Delhi and Mumbai on LinkedIn on Friday, more than two weeks after the social media rules came into effect on May 26 and after receiving “one final notice” from the Indian government last week to comply with the rules.

Twitter’s careers site also showed openings for these positions at the time of publication. 

We have reached out to Twitter for comment and an estimated time by which they would close hiring for these positions. 

“You will be responsible for advising on the development of Twitter’s compliance approach to legal and regulatory obligations within India,” Twitter wrote in the job description for the position of Chief Compliance Officer. 

In the job description for the Nodal Officer, the company said that the person “will be responsible for coordination with the law enforcement and government agencies in India to oversee the process of responding to reports, orders, and complaints”.

The Grievance officer will be responsible for overseeing the grievance redressal mechanism of complaints from the people who use Twitter’s service in India, the company wrote. “This position is ideal for a seasoned professional with prior experience interfacing with the public or government officials on issues of national importance,” it added. 

Candidates applying for all three of these positions should be based in India, Twitter wrote in the eligibility criteria. 

The IT Rules 2021, notified in February, require social media companies to appoint a compliance officer, who is responsible for ensuring their compliance with the Information Technology Act. Companies are also required to appoint a nodal contact person for 24×7 coordination with law enforcement agencies. The resident grievance officer is supposed to act on complaints about any violation of the rules by these companies. 

Last week, the information technology ministry sent a letter to Twitter rapping them for not having yet complied with the social media rules. The ministry said that the company hadn’t provided details about its chief compliance officer and the nodal and grievance officer it had appointed was not a Twitter employee. It also said that the office address mentioned by Twitter to the government is that of a law firm. 

In its response, Twitter said that it was making every effort to comply with the new rules while continuing a constructive dialogue with the government. 

For now, Twitter mentions Dharmendra Chatur as its interim grievance officer on its website who incidentally is also a partner designate at law firm Poovayya & Co. The address given by Twitter is also Poovayya & Co.’s Bengaluru address. 

Facebook has named Spoorthi Priya as its resident grievance officer on its website, while WhatsApp has appointed Paresh B. Lal as its grievance officer for India. 

Google mentioned one Joe Grier as its India grievance officer on its website along with a US-based address at the time of publishing, even though the social media rules require that the grievance officer be based in India. 

None of these companies have made public names of their compliance and nodal officers. We have reached out to them for details.