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Delhi Police Sends Notice to Twitter Over Child Porn Content

The Delhi Police's Cyber Cell on 29 June, filed an FIR against Twitter Inc & Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd.

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The Delhi Police sent a notice to Twitter on Tuesday, 29 June, seeking details from officials about steps taken by Twitter against circulation of child pornographic content on its platform, officials told news agency PTI on Wednesday.

This comes after the Delhi Police's Cyber Cell on Tuesday, registered an FIR against Twitter Inc and Twitter Communication India Private Ltd under several serious sections of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act on a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).

A Delhi Police spokesperson said that acting on a complaint received from NCPCR regarding the availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material on Twitter, an FIR under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code, IT Act, and POCSO Act had been registered by the cyber cell.

The police have also sought details of the accounts circulating such material.
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On 25 June, the NCPCR had written a reminder letter to Delhi Police demanding a report on the action taken by them against Twitter over providing false information during an investigation and not cooperating.

Earlier, the NCPCR had also sought a response from Twitter regarding certain links related to child pornography and other matters concerning child welfare on social media, which Twitter refused.

"After conducting an inquiry and finding child pornographic material (CSAM) on the microblogging site, the NCPCR directed Delhi Police to book Twitter India under section 11/15/19 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, section 199/292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and any other relevant sections of IT Act on May 29 (sic)," the complaint read.

'New Dimension of Conflict': NCPCR Chairperson

The NCPCR chairperson said, "Twitter India is not ready to admit that its content, pornographic per se, is unsafe for kids," news agency ANI reported on Wednesday.

"We also found that they (Twitter India) lied to us about Twitter Inc not linked to them. Two of its directors are salaried employees of Twitter Inc."
Priyank Kanoongo, NCPCR Chairperson

Kanoongo also tweeted on Tuesday stating that Twitter's actions in India are "more a display of Western culture's arrogance than non-obedience to law and order."

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'Disturbed': National Commission for Women

The National Commission for Women (NCW) also took suo motu cognizance of pornographic content on Twitter and sought action within a week.

NCW chairperson Rekha Sharma wrote to Twitter India's Managing Director asking to immediately remove all such pornographic and obscene content from the platform within a week.

Writing to Commissioner of Police Delhi to investigate and take appropriate legal action, the NCW also said in its press note that upon receiving similar complaint earlier, the commission had brought the matter to Twitter's notice. However, no action was taken by the platform.

It added, "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."

Meanwhile, a Twitter spokesperson said, "Twitter has a zero-tolerance policy for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE). We will continue to invest in proactive detection and removal of content that violates Twitter rules and work with law enforcement agencies and NGO partners in India to tackle the issue," ANI reported.

The commission also shared details of a few profiles that were sharing pornographic content on Twitter and has directed Twitter to remove all such content within one week. The microblogging platform has also been asked to communicate the action taken within 10 days.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI)

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