An activist who flagged a purportedly hateful video clip floating on Twitter to the authorities was in for shock after receiving an email from Twitter, informing him that the Hyderabad police consider his content going against the Information Technology Act.
The video clip, tweeted on Sept.1, purportedly claims that fruit business has been captured by a particular community, and refers to them as ‘ bhaijaan ’. “In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from Cyber Crime Police Station, Detective Department, Central Crime Station, Hyderabad regarding your Twitter account, @SQMasood, that claims the following content violates India’s Information Technology Act,” an excerpt from the email, accessed by The Hindu , reads.
Mr Masood said, “I had complained against the incendiary video on Twitter and tagged the police in my tweet. While Twitter sent me an email stating that the police considers my tweet as against the IT Act, the original, objectionable tweet is still on Twitter. I still hope the police takes action against those who have made the video clip, and that it is taken down. As on this day, it has been retweeted over 1,500 times and more than 900 quote tweets which is shocking.”
K V M Prasad, ACP, Cyber Crime, said their social media wing would take note of objectionable content.. After this, a request to Twitter was sent explaining the police’s take on the issue. On Mr Masood’s tweet, Mr Prasad said, “Such content can spread to lakhs of people. Many people will share it which may lead to issues. He (Mr Masood) should complain to us directly.”
Mr Prasad said requests to social media companies were sent to control the spread of objectionable content.
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