After Twitter refused to take down a post by AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair that had revealed the identity of a minor girl, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has now knocked on the doors of the Delhi High Court.
Seeking removal of the Tweet, NCPCR stated that Zubair’s Tweet is in violation of various laws. It also alleged, “Twitter is not cooperating with the law enforcement agencies and is not following the law of the land by not taking action against the said impugned post.”
Here’s what happened.
Zubair doxxes minor girl
On August 7, 2020, Mohammed Zubair indulged in an online spat with one Twitter user Jagdish Singh. However, instead of replying to the user directly, Zubair had brazenly referred to a minor girl seen in the profile picture of the user Jagdish Singh, identifying her as his granddaughter, and using her identity to substantiate his argument against Singh
After Zubair had highlighted the identity of the minor girl in the photo, Islamists had started to issue rape threats to the girl.
NCPCR files complaint
Taking cognizance of a matter, the NCPCR on August 08, 2020, had asked Twitter India and the law enforcement officials to take appropriate action against it.
An FIR was filed under POCSO and relevant acts for “stalking of a minor girl on Twitter” naming Zubair and his supporters who had hurled a barrage of abuses at the child following the Tweet.
According to the ATR received in @NCPCR_ ,an FIR has been lodged against the alleged persons for threatening and torturing a girl child on @Twitter.
— प्रियंक कानूनगो Priyank Kanoongo (@KanoongoPriyank) September 5, 2020
As per the request made by @TwitterIndia an additional time of 10 days has been provided to them to provide relevant information. pic.twitter.com/RLhXvzBUs8
“Even his followers have started posting indecent and disgraceful comments on the minor girl’s picture,” read a letter by NCPCR.
NCPCR issued summon to Twitter India
NCPCR had also issued a summon to the senior manager policy of Twitter India to personally appear after it found Twitter India’s reply in AltNews co-founder Mohammed Zubair’s case unsatisfactory.
Delhi Police filed a case against Twitter
In June this year, Delhi Police Cyber Cell registered a case against Twitter for allowing content promoting child abuse on their platform. Reportedly, the case of Zubair doxxing the minor was also mentioned in the complaint.
Delhi Police Cyber Cell has registered a case under POCSO Act and IT Act against @Twitter and Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd on the basis of a complaint from citing availability of links/ material pertaining child exploitation. pic.twitter.com/eWAa0KMlnh
— जितेंद्र शर्मा (@capt_ivane) June 29, 2021
The complaint further mentioned that Twitter Communication India Pvt. Ltd. and Twitter Inc. kept washing their hands from the case and alleged that their counterpart is responsible to act on the complaint.
NCPCR files affidavit
In July this year, NCPCR had filed an affidavit in the case, stating that the commission had written to Twitter and Delhi Police in July this year regarding Zubair’s tweet and asked them about follow-up action.
The Delhi Police responded by saying that it had filed a plea under IPC Section 175 before the Patiala House Court on February 17 against Twitter for not providing the sought information despite repeated reminders. The police had particularly sought action against Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and its then managing director (India operation) Manish Maheshwari.
However, Twitter replied to the commission saying that the image of the child in the post was blurred and hence declined to take down the post after the review.
