FIR against Twitter, others over Ghaziabad incident involving old man's beard being cut

In a video on social media, an elderly Muslim man has accused four men of beating him up, chopping his beard and asking him to chant “Jai Shri Ram”

With the government claiming that microblogging site Twitter lost its legal protection for third-party content, the Uttar Pradesh Police filed a case against the social media giant over tweets that they say "attempted to stoke communal hatred".

Ghaziabad Police on Tuesday night filed an FIR against Twitter and few others in connection with the alleged assault on elderly Muslim man Abdul Samad Saifi on June 5.

This is the first case that Twitter will face for third-party content on its platform.

Also Read — Twitter loses 'safe harbour' shield in India over non-compliance to IT rules

The case was filed in connection with the assault on Saifi, where the complainant alleged that he was forced to chant ‘Vande Matram’ and ‘Jai Shri Ram’ by a group that assaulted him.

The police, who probed the case, arrested three people and said the incident was not communal. Instead, it was a case of enmity. The accused in this case alleged that the man sold them fake items.

Besides Twitter, the police also booked Congress leaders, journalists and other prominent social activists for their tweets.

The police in the FIR also said that despite the Ghaziabad Police clarifying the issue, the accused did not delete their tweets, neither did Twitter make any efforts to delete them. "In this case, the tweets were not verified, which gave a communal angle of the incident despite being untrue,” said the FIR.

Also Read — Twitter appoints interim Chief Compliance Officer for India, to share details with IT ministry soon

Police have invoked different IPC sections including provocation for rioting, promoting enmity between different groups and acts intended to outrage religious feelings against them.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Tuesday said that Twitter has lost its status as an intermediary platform in India due to non-compliance with the government's new IT rules. This means the US-based company will no longer be protected from penal action under Section 79 of the IT Act, which absolves social media firms of liability for third-party content on their platforms.

According to the IT Ministry official, in the future, if there is a case in court, Twitter cannot seek safe harbour under the Information Technology Act. In any case, filed after May 26, Twitter cannot say it is an intermediary and claim exception, said the official. "The implication of this development is that if there is any charge against Twitter for alleged unlawful content, it would be treated as a publisher – not an intermediary – and be liable for punishment under any law, including IT Act, as also the penal laws of the country," said the IT Ministry official.

As per new social media intermediary rules, significant social media intermediaries — those with over 50 lakh users — are required to appoint a grievance officer, a nodal officer, and a chief compliance officer. These personnel have to be residents of India.

Twitter on Tuesday night said that it has appointed an interim Chief Compliance Officer and the details of the official would be shared soon with the IT Ministry.

The company continues to make every effort to comply with the new guidelines, and is keeping the IT Ministry apprised of progress at every step of the process, according to a spokesperson from Twitter. However, the IT Ministry said it had not received any communications from Twitter on complying with the new IT rules.

Recently, the IT Ministry gave a second chance to Twitter to comply with the new IT rules.