The Uttar Pradesh Police on Thursday sent a legal notice to the Twitter MD, over the posting and promotion of an allegedly manipulated video of the assault of an elderly Muslim man on the microblogging site, Hindustan Times reported.
Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari has been summoned for questioning over the video that went viral on the platform. The UP Police had labelled the assault on the victim as non-communal in nature and requested Twitter to take down the post since it was allegedly used to fire communal tensions in the country.
Maheshwari has been given 7 days to appear before the police and record his statement.
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Earlier, several journalists and Congress leaders along with the news website the wire.in were booked for allegedly promoting enmity between religions and increasing communal tension deliberately.
The video purportedly showed the man being beaten up and his attackers cutting his beard. The Uttar Pradesh Police has claimed there was no communal angle to the attack. Meanwhile, Samajwadi Party leaders alleged that police knowingly left out the communal slogan chanting by the perpetrator from the First Information Report filed in the case.
According to the investigating officer Akhilesh Kumar Mishra, the notice to Twitter MD was issued late on Thursday evening under the regular provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
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“The notice is served so that he appears to record statements under the CrPC’s Section 161,” Mishra told HT.
The section empowers an investigating officer to seek the appearance of any person who appears to be acquainted with the facts and circumstances of a case.
Twitter was booked amid disagreements between the government and the company over the new guidelines that require digital companies to change how they regulate content, appoint nodal officers for compliance and grievance redressal, and adopt features such as traceability of messages and voluntary user verification.
Among the big social media platforms, Twitter is the only one left that has not yet complied with the centre’s new IT rules. Even after facing several backlashes and demanding extensions for compliance date from the centre, the platform’s Indian arm has not complied with the new laws.
