Twitter India’s former grievance officer, Dharmendra Chatur, has received a third notice from Ghaziabad Police in the assault video case. The notices have also been sent to Congress’ Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani, Shama Mohamed.
Chatur has been issued a notice under Section 41A of the CrPc and asked to appear before the police and record statements.
A viral video featured an elderly Muslim man’s assault and alleged that he was thrashed by some men and was also asked to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram. Twitter has been summoned to answer allegations that the video incited hate and enmity between Hindu and Muslim communities on its platform. Police, however, ruled out any such incident from a communal angle and claimed the video was shared to cause social unrest.
Ghaziabad police had lodged an FIR against Twitter Inc, Twitter Communications India, news website The Wire, journalists Mohammad Zubair and Rana Ayyub, Congress’ Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani, Shama Mohammad, and writer Saba Naqvi for sharing the clip.
Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari was summoned by Ghaziabad Police in the related investigation carried out in the objectionable assault video of the elderly Muslim man.
Besides these, two other FIRs have been registered against the social media giant’s senior officials in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh for putting up a distorted map of the country. The social media uproar followed after a map on Twitter’s careers page showed Jammu and Kashmir, claimed by both India and Pakistan, as well as the Buddhist enclave of Ladakh, outside India. As of Tuesday, the map was no longer visible on its site.
Also, Delhi police have reportedly registered a case against Twitter for the availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material on its platform.
Meanwhile, the government has confronted Twitter over deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country’s new IT rules, despite repeated reminders.