Meta, WhatsApp to hire compliance, nodal contact, grievance officers in India – News Logic

These positions are being marketed on LinkedIn, and have been posted over the course of the previous few days.

The new IT guidelines, which got here into impact in May this yr, mandate that important social media intermediaries (these with different 50 lakh customers) appoint a grievance officer, nodal officer and a chief compliance officer. These personnel are required to be resident in India.

At that point, WhatsApp had named Paresh B Lal as its grievance officer for India on its web site, whereas Facebook had named Spoorthi Priya as its grievance officer for India on its web site. While Facebook’s web page names Priya because the grievance officer, WhatsApp’s web site reveals Varun Lamba because the grievance officer.

When contacted, Meta and WhatsApp in an e-mailed assertion stated, “We have appointed officers as per the requirements of the Intermediary Guideline Rules. We are actively engaged in a continued dialogue with the government on the new IT rules and we remain committed to keeping our users safe on our platform.”

They additional stated: “We reserve the right to seek new candidates as needed because the officers are critical roles and include the recruitment of uniquely qualified personnel to lead these responsibilities”.

Meta (previously Facebook) counts India amongst its largest markets for its household of apps. According to knowledge cited by the Indian authorities earlier this yr, there are 53 crore WhatsApp customers, 41 crore Facebook subscribers and 21 crore Instagram account holders in the nation.

As per Meta’s submit on LinkedIn, Meta is “looking for a highly motivated professional for the role of nodal contact person and grievance officer for Facebook in India”.

This individual will coordinate with legislation enforcement businesses in India, together with facilitating well timed responses to legitimate authorized requests below relevant legislation and our insurance policies, and also will oversee the corporate’s acknowledgement, redressal and response to consumer complaints and grievances, the submit stated.

“The ideal candidate will be an experienced professional with significant prior experience in working with and/or within law enforcement agencies and managing user grievance programmes,” it famous.

For the chief compliance officer place, Meta stated: “The ideal candidate would be an experienced leader and strategic thinker with a deep knowledge of India’s evolving digital industry”.

The individual will oversee and monitor compliance with relevant legal guidelines and rules of India, together with however not restricted to the knowledge expertise legal guidelines and guidelines, on behalf of Facebook and its household of apps and merchandise.

The individual can even “work closely and creatively with cross functional teams, including Legal and Policy, in reviewing and addressing governmental regulations, agency guidelines, and policies”, as per the submit.

WhatsApp’s posts have been worded in an analogous method.

As per the brand new IT guidelines, all intermediaries have to prominently publish on their web site, app or each, the title of the grievance officer and his/her contact particulars in addition to the mechanism by which a consumer or a sufferer could make a grievance. The grievance officer can have to acknowledge the grievance inside 24 hours and get rid of such grievance inside a interval of 15 days from the date of its receipt, and obtain and acknowledge any order, discover or route issued by the authorities.

The Centre has stated the brand new guidelines are designed to stop abuse and misuse of platforms, and provide customers a sturdy discussion board for grievance redressal. Non-compliance with the foundations would end result in these platforms dropping their middleman standing that gives them immunity from liabilities over any third-party knowledge hosted by them. In different phrases, they might be responsible for prison motion in case of complaints.

After the brand new norms got here into impact on May 26, the IT ministry had turned up the warmth on important social media firms, asking them to instantly report compliance and supply particulars of the three key officers appointed.

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