National Commission for Women asks Twitter to remove pornographic content from website

The National Commission for Women(NCW) on Wednesday issued notices to Twitter asking them to remove pornographic content from their website within a week. This comes a day after the Delhi Police registered a case against Twitter, based on a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for allegedly allowing access to child sexual abuse material on its platform. The NCW has also asked the Delhi police to investigate the matter and take appropriate legal action.

“The NCW has taken suo motu cognisance of several profiles on Twitter sharing pornographic content. Chairperson Ms Rekha Sharma has written to Managing Director, Twitter India for immediately removing all such pornographic and obscene content from the platform within a week,” NCW said in a statement. NCW alleged that when they previously approached Twitter related to a similar complaint for “immediate action”, they did not acknowledge the issue.

“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 Commission has shared with Twitter details of a few profiles sharing pornographic content on Twitter and has directed to remove all such content within one week. The platform has also been asked to communicate action taken within 10 days,” NCW said.

A day earlier, besides filing an FIR against Twitter for allegedly allowing child pornographic content, notices were sent by Delhi police to the social media company, seeking details of their action taken against such incidents.

The case was registered under relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the IT Act, police said. The case was registered following the complaint of NCPCR, who wrote to Delhi police on May 29, asking why they did not take any action against Twitter.