The National Commission for Women on Wednesday directed Twitter India to remove all pornographic and obscene content from the social media platform within a week.
NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma has also written to the Delhi commissioner of police to investigate the matter and take appropriate action.
“The NCW has taken suo motu cognisance of several profiles on Twitter sharing pornographic content,” a statement from the NCW said. “The commission had earlier, upon receiving a similar complaint, brought the matter to Twitter’s notice for immediate action. However, no action was reportedly taken by the platform.”
The women’s panel said it has given Twitter the details of profiles sharing pornographic content.
“The commission is disturbed with the fact that despite knowing of the availability of such banned content which not only violates Indian laws but also Twitter’s own policy, no action has been taken till date towards removing them,” the statement said.
The Delhi Police have already registered a first information report against Twitter for allegedly allowing access to child pornography on the social media platform. This was based on a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights. This is the fourth case to be filed against Twitter in less than a month, marking an escalation in the row between the United States company and authorities in India.
In a notice sent on Tuesday, the police sought information about the steps taken by the company against the circulation of child pornographic content. It also asked Twitter to provide details of all the accounts that are “selling or hosting child porn content”.
A spokesperson of Twitter on Wednesday said the company has a zero tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation. The social media giant said that it will continue to remove content that violates its rules and work with law enforcement to tackle the problem.
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