The Ghaziabad police investigating the Loni fake ‘hate crime’ case, has sent a legal notice to Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari on Thursday, asking him to join the investigation. Accusing Twitter India of “provoking communal unrest”, the UP police directed Maheshwari to report to a police station at Loni Border near Delhi and record his statement within the coming 7 days. The notices were sent via mail.
Ghaziabad Police sent legal notice to Managing Director of Twitter India over viral video of an elderly man in Loni being assaulted with the intent of “provoking communal unrest”
— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 18, 2021
The MD has been asked to come to the Police Station Loni Border & record the statement within 7 days pic.twitter.com/u5Ct8Omq6l
“Some people used their Twitter handles as a tool to spread hatred in the society and Twitter Communication India and Twitter Inc did not take any action against them. They let the anti-social messages go viral,” the notice sent to Mr Maheshwari read.
The UP police had filed three FIRs against Twitter India on June 15 for failing to flag the video with unverified claims and allowing their platform to be used to fake news that was being used to spread communal hatred. Alt News co-founder Zubair, Rana Ayyub, The Wire, Salman Nizami, Maksoor Usmani, Sama Mohammad and Saba Naqvi have also been booked for spreading misleading and fake news.
The UP police have written to Twitter India seeking details of accounts who first shared the misleading video. It asked the microblogging site to provide the name, user ID and the IP addresses of those handles which shared the video.
Speaking further on the matter, Ghaziabad SP Iraz Raja told Mirror Now that the 7 others who were named in the FIR would be served legal notices shortly. “That is under process. We are first taking it up with Twitter, then the other 7 Twitter users would be served notices”, said the Ghaziabad SP.
#GHAZIABAD ELDERLY MAN ASSAULT CASE#UttarPradesh Police sent notices to #TwitterIndia & 7 others, asking #TwitterIndia MD to appear before #Ghaziabad cops within a week. Remember, cops have registered 3 FIRs in this case.@AlokReporter spoke to #Ghaziabad SP Iraz Raja. Listen! pic.twitter.com/UX3QvB2XsX
— Mirror Now (@MirrorNow) June 18, 2021
Speaking on the discrepancies in the case, the Ghaziabad SP said that the victim hid particular details from them. He also revealed that investigations are on to recover the video and mobile phones.
Uttar Pradesh police file FIR against The Wire, Alt News cofounder Zubair, Rana Ayyub, Twitter India and others for fake ‘hate crime’
OpIndia reported on June 16, that the UP police had registered an FIR against Alt News cofounder Muhammed Zubair, The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Twitter and others for trying to stoke communal tension by making false claims that an elderly Muslim man was beaten up and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. While Zubair, Rana Ayyub, The Wire, Salman Nizami, Maksoor Usmani, Sama Mohammad and Saba Naqvi have been booked for spreading misleading and fake news, Twitter was booked for the lack of action against these seven and allowing usage of its platform to spread fake news.
The police action against Twitter was initiated just as the social media giant lost its intermediary status in India for failing to comply with Indian laws under the new IT rules under the extended time that was granted to it.
The FIR has been booked under Sections 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on the grounds of religion etc.), 295-A (Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Indian Penal Code.