The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has issued summons to the Delhi Police cyber cell on the matters of non-registration of FIR against Twitter over the availability of child pornographic material on the platform.
According to news agency ANI, NCPCR issued summons to DCP of Delhi Police cyber cell asking him to appear before it via video conferencing on 29 June and apprise the body of the action taken in the case.
The child rights wing had directed the Delhi Police on 29 May to lodge an FIR against Twitter India, under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and IT Act after it conducted an enquiry and found child sexual abuse material on the microblogging site.
Why Has Delhi Police Been Summoned?
The commission had asked the Delhi Police to submit an action-taken report within seven days.
Despite repeated reminders, the Delhi Police failed to furnish said report. Because of this, the NCPCR has now summoned DCP Anyesh Roy, cyber cell, Delhi Police, to appear before it via video conferencing on 29 June, reported IndiaToday.
NCPCR Chairperson Priyanka Kanoongo said that Twitter had allowed sharing of WhatsApp links, which showed child porn.
“When we sent a notice to Twitter India raising these concerns, they said all such matters come under Twitter Inc and that Twitter India only works on a contractual basis for them. However, we found this was not true. That is why an FIR has been lodged for lying to the Commission and violations of POCSO Act,” Kanoongo had said.
Twitter vs Ravi Shankar Prasad
The development comes after Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad on Friday, 25 June, claimed that Twitter had denied him access to his account for almost an hour.
After the assertions by Prasad, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor said his account had faced a similar action.
Offering a reply to the Union Minister, the social media platform explained that the account was restricted following a DMCA notice for content posted from his account.
Prasad, in a tweet, alleged that Twitter’s actions were in gross violation of Rule 4(8) of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 “where they failed to provide me any prior notice before denying me access to my own account”.
He said: "It is apparent that my statements calling out the high handedness and arbitrary actions of Twitter, particularly sharing the clips of my interviews to TV channels and its powerful impact, have clearly ruffled its feathers."
The minister also clarified that in the past several years, no television channel or anchor has complained about copyright infringements with regard to these news clips of his interviews shared on social media.
"No matter what any platform does, they will have to abide by the new IT Rules fully and there shall be no compromise on that,” the minister added.
(With inputs from IndiaToday and ANI)
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