The Delhi police on Monday registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by the public policy director of Facebook India, Ankhi Das, that she has been receiving threats and offensive messages on social media.
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Ms. Das filed the complaint with the Chittaranjan Park police station and also marked it to senior police officers.
A senior police officer said a case has been registered under relevant sections of law on Monday and investigation has been taken up by the Cyber Prevention Awareness and Detection (CyPAD) unit of the Delhi police.
In her complaint, Ms. Das said the threats were in relation to an article dated 14 August, 2020 , published in The Wall Street Journal, which and was further published in a “mischaracterised and distorted” manner in India by various publications and widely circulated on social media. She has identified a few Twitter and Facebook accounts in her complaint.
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“Since the evening of 14 August 2020, I have been receiving violent threats to my life and body, and I am extremely disturbed by the relentless harassment meted out to me by the accused persons. The content, which even includes my photograph is evidently threatening to my life and body and I fear for my safety as well as that of my family members. The content also maligns my reputation based on a news article and I am subjected to name-calling, cyber bullying and eve-teasing online,” the compliant said.
Responding to the allegations of online threats and offensive comments to an officer bearer of Facebook India, a spokesperson said, “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy.”
