UP police send legal notice to Twitter India MD, ask him to appear within 7 days

Ghaziabad, June 18: Taking action on Twitter, Ghaziabad Police has slapped a legal notice to the Managing Director (MD) Manish Maheshwari of Twitter sent a legal notice to Twitter's India head for "provoking communal unrest" in the recent Loni incident.

 

The police have sent the notice to Twitter under provisions of Section 160 of the Criminal Procedure Code and it has asked Maheshwari to come to the Police Station Loni Border and record the statement within seven days.

 

 

The notice reads, "Some people used their Twitter handle as a tool to spread hatred in the society and Twitter Communication India and Twitter Inc did not take any action against it. They let the anti-social messages go viral."

 

Iraz Raza, SP Rural said "We have summoned Twitter India head Manish Maheshwari & have also asked some details from him within a week, via mail. I hope he will cooperate in the investigation."

 

 

 

The legal notice comes just days after police filed FIR against the nine entities, including Twitter India after the incident was given a communal angle by certain individuals on the microblogging site. Police claimed that the individuals shared the video on their handles without verifying the authenticity of the allegations.

 

Police have booked them under-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 IPC.

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In the FIR police stressed that Twitter and Twitter India did not take any steps to remove the contentious tweets.

"There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr. Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami -- without checking the fact, started giving communal color to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities," the FIR said.

 

Yesterday, social media giant lost its 'safe harbour' immunity implying that its top executives may face criminal action for third-party content.