New Delhi, Nov 12: Twitter was Monday pulled up by the Central government for being “slow” in removing objectionable or unlawful content which has allegedly helped the spread of hate messages and rumours inciting violence and crime against women and was warned of strict legal action if it failed to comply with the directives of law enforcement agencies, officials said.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba also directed Vijaya Gadde, Twitter’s legal, policy and trust and safety lead, and Mahima Kaul, Head Public Policy, Twitter India, to ensure a round-the-clock mechanism for prompt disposal of requisitions of law enforcement agencies.
At a meeting, which was held here “for effective action” against objectionable contents, the officials from the microblogging site were told that in some cases Twitter has been “slow” in removing or blocking objectionable or unlawful content, a home ministry official said.
“In the recent past, some cases of uploading and posting of objectionable content, which are likely to disrupt public peace or order and incite criminal offences including communal violence have been posted on Twitter,” it said, adding that action was taken for the removal of such content from public access.
However, action taken by Twitter, it said, has been slow in some cases and compliance for removal of unlawful content has been about 60 per cent “even where orders have been issued by the competent authority after following due process of law”.
“During the meeting, instances of legal requisitions were shown where the Delhi Police had sought removal of content openly inciting violence where response by Twitter had been neither full nor timely.”
“Specific legal notices issued by the Delhi Police seeking investigation-related information were also shared.”
The Ministry said a series of meetings were held this year with social media platforms including Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp and Twitter “to sensitise them about preventive and other actions to remove unlawful content immediately”.