In Delhi, a lawsuit has been filed against Twitter for child pornography, the fourth such prosecution against the social media network since it lost legal protection for user-posted content amid a major spat with the government. The new case was brought under the Posco Act and the Information Technology Act.
The case was filed by the Delhi Police’s Cyber Cell in response to a complaint from the National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, or NCPCR.
The NCPCR said in its lawsuit that pornographic content involving children was constantly shared on Twitter.
The commission, which had previously expressed its dissatisfaction with the situation, has written two letters to the Cyber Cell and the Delhi Police Commissioner. A senior officer of the Cyber Cell has also been summoned to appear before it on June 29.
A case was filed against Twitter in Ghaziabad earlier this month in connection with postings about an alleged assault on a Muslim man.
The case is currently before the Supreme Court, after Twitter India CEO Manish Maheshwari was granted protection from arrest by a Karnataka High Court judgement. The order has been challenged in the Supreme Court by the Uttar Pradesh police.
Mr Maheshwari was also mentioned in a separate First Information Report (also filed in Uttar Pradesh) over an erroneous map of India on the Twitter website, which depicted Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh as different countries.
Mr Maheshwari has been charged with the same offence in another FIR filed in Madhya Pradesh.
Following its inability to comply with new digital rules, including the recruitment of Indian personnel for the grievance and redressal mechanism, Twitter lost legal protection from prosecution over user posts earlier this month.
Twitter had a public spat with the government over new IT regulations, which it claimed were unconstitutional. The conflict erupted after it labelled BJP leaders’ tweets on a supposed “Congress toolkit” as “manipulated media.”
