On Monday, Delhi's High Court issued a legal notice to Twitter demanding it comply with the country’s IT rules, which state the social media platform must make specially assigned grievance officers available so people make complaints.
The move comes after Indian lawyer Amit Acharya filed a plea saying Twitter had not complied with India's digital legislation before the set deadline of 25 May. Acharya claims that he tried to contact Twitter to complain about some tweets but was not able to track down a grievance officer.
His plea urged the central government to ensure that Twitter complies with the IT rules.
Twitter, however, argued in court that it has in fact appointed a grievance officer, but this claim was dismissed by government representative Standing Counsel Ripudaman Singh Bharadwaj.
Justice Rekha Palli, who was hearing the petition in the Delhi High Court, has asked both Twitter and the government to reply to the petition by 6 June, which is when the court will readjourn.
Last week, Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp locked horns with the Indian government after protesting against giving the authorities power to trace the origins of problematic tweets.
WhatsApp officially pushed back against the enforcement of the IT rules in Delhi's High Court.
Meanwhile, Twitter expressed concerns regarding the “threat to freedom of expression” in the country.
The platform's statement comes days after the Delhi Police visited Twitter's Delhi offices after the platform flagged a tweet by a ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member as “manipulative media."
India’s federal Ministry of Information Technology said Twitter's actions were a threat to freedom of speech in the country.
