The Delhi Police have filed a first information report against Twitter on the basis of a complaint alleging that pornographic content involving children was available on the platform, PTI reported on Tuesday.
Delhi Police Public Relations Officer Chinmoy Biswal told the news agency that the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights had submitted a complaint against Twitter “regarding the availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material” on the platform in the form of accounts and links.
“An FIR under relevant sections of IPC [Indian Penal Code], IT Act [Information Technology Act] and POCSO [Protection of Children from Sexual Offences] Act has been registered by the Cyber Crime Unit, and investigation has been taken up,” Biswal said.
In May, the child rights body had informed the Delhi Police about an inquiry, through which it found that abusive material involving children was easily available on the platform, according to India Today. It had asked the police to file a case against Twitter at that time. Last week, it had summoned the deputy commissioner of the Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell on Tuesday to explain why no action had been taken against Twitter.
This is the fourth case to be filed against Twitter in less than a month. Two cases filed against the platform are related to a misrepresentation of the map of India. One was filed in Uttar Pradesh, while the other was registered in Madhya Pradesh, according to NDTV. Another FIR involves posts about the assault on a Muslim man in Ghaziabad earlier this month.
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Last week, the Uttar Pradesh Police had asked Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari to appear at the police station for questioning or face action in the Ghaziabad case. The company was booked for “intent to a riot, promoting enmity and criminal conspiracy” for not removing some tweets that the authorities claim were misleading.
Maheshwari challenged the legal notice in the Karnataka High Court. The court ruled on June 24 that the Uttar Pradesh Police cannot take any coercive action against him.
Maheshwari has also filed a caveat in the Supreme Court, anticipating an appeal by the Uttar Pradesh Police against the relief granted to him by the High Court. He has urged the Supreme Court to hear him before passing any order.
These cases against Twitter came amid a dispute between the social media platform and the Centre regarding India’s new information technology rules. On June 16, Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had criticised Twitter for failing to comply with the IT rules and accused it of taking “the path of deliberate defiance”.
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