The Delhi High Court has taken action against the social media platform LinkedIn, ordering the company to provide detailed information about its grievance officers and the procedures they follow when handling complaints under the IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules. Justice Prathiba M Singh, presiding over the bench, also directed LinkedIn to submit the regulations that apply to individuals who create profiles on their platform.
These directives were issued in response to a legal case filed by Tata Sky Ltd against LinkedIn and other entities. Tata Sky, a prominent Direct-To-Home (DTH) and Pay TV platform in India, rebranded itself as Tata Play last year to reflect its expanded business ventures. However, the company encountered a significant challenge when numerous individuals misrepresented themselves as Tata Sky employees by creating profiles on LinkedIn.
In response, Tata Sky filed a lawsuit against 37 individuals who falsely portrayed themselves as retailers of Tata Sky products on their LinkedIn profiles, despite not being authorized sellers.
The court order stated, "Defendant No. 1 LinkedIn is required to provide the details of its Grievance Officers and the Rules that apply to individuals creating LinkedIn profiles, as per LinkedIn's policy. Additionally, LinkedIn is instructed to submit the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), if any, followed by the Grievance Officers when addressing complaints received under the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021."
Furthermore, the court directed LinkedIn to make the physical and email addresses of their grievance officers easily accessible to the public through their website. This aligns with the provisions of the IT Rules, 2021, which mandate that social media intermediaries appoint grievance officers and disclose their contact information publicly.
The role of grievance officers gained significance with the introduction of Grievance Appellate Committees (GACs) last year.
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