UP Police files FIR over fake news and now Twitter loses immunity shield it had in India!

Social Media giant Twitter has lost its intermediary status in India for not complying with the new Information Technology Rules, which came into force on May 26. According to the reports, as Twitter India did not comply with IT rules enforced by the Indian government and failed to appoint statutory compliance officers criminally liable for the content posted on the platform within the given time, the intermediary status of the platform has automatically lapsed.

 

 

This is a day after the Ghaziabad Police registered an FIR against Twitter, Twitter India and 7 others over the video of an elderly man from Uttar Pradesh which has gone viral. It showed an elderly man Abdul Samad Saifi being assaulted, his beard being forcibly cut by unknown persons and being allegedly asked to chant slogans of Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram.

 

 

 

 

It has accused AltNews co-founder Muhammad Zubair, Congress leaders Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami and Shama Mohamed, journalists Saba Naqvi and Rana Ayyub and news publication The Wire of trying to give a communal spin to the incident. The police stated in the FIR, "The statements which were made on Twitter were not the opinion of a person but done with a clear intention".

 

 

"These tweets point towards a criminal conspiracy. The aforesaid accused and other unknown persons tried to spread hatred and hostility between Hindus and Muslims. It is clear that these tweets were posted to further a common goal of creating a religious divide and disturbing religious harmony. Such tweets were propagated on a large scale."

 

 

 

Calling them out for spreading "fake news", the police stressed that Twitter and Twitter India did not take any steps to remove the contentious tweets. As per the FIR, the aforesaid accused have been booked under Sections 34 (common intention), 120-B (criminal conspiracy), 153 (provocation with intent to cause riot), 153-A (promoting enmity on grounds of religion), 295-A (deliberate act to outrage religious feelings) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the Indian Penal Code. This case was registered at the Loni Border Police Station in Ghaziabad.

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