Indian Officials and the Twitter war are on. In the latest development, Twitter MD Manish Maheshwari is booked by Uttar Pradesh state police for showing Jammu and Kashmir & Ladakh as a separate countries.
Twitter Shows Distorted Map of India
The Twitter website showed a distorted map of India under the “Tweep Life” header. There was an uproar over social media due to the Twitter map that shows Jammu and Kashmir as well as Ladakh as a non-Indian region. Due to that, UP Police filed a case against Twitter. In the FIR, UP police booked Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari, who lives in Bengaluru in Karnataka.
Along with Twitter MD, Along with Maheshwari, one Amrita Tripathi has also been booked under section 505(2) of the IPC — statement conducing to public mischief — and section 74 of the IT (Amendment) Act, 2008.
Talking about the case, Bulandshahar senior superintendent of police (SSP) Santosh Kumar Singh revealed that Praveen Bhati complained about the Twitter wrong map and asked the police officials to file a case. Bhati is a professional lawyer, hails from UP.
It all started in Khurja Nagar that is a small town in Bulandshahar UP. Right-wing outfit Bajrang Dal leader started the case filing issue in Khurja Police station with the help of Praveen.
Current Issues between Twitter and the Indian Government
When Twitter came to know about a controversy due to its map, the microblogging site removed the wrong map on Monday night but the case is already registered.
Last month, the legal war is on between Twitter and the Indian government due to different reasons.
Recently, the Indian government changed IT rules for social media handles. As per the new amendment, social media will share the origin of a post if it creates any legal, political, or social issue in India.
Most of the social media platforms including Facebook, Telegram, Whatsapp, and Instagram accepted the new changes and started working as per the Indian officials’ guidelines.
While Twitter did not agree with the new rules. It cited the reason that it is against the privacy policy of the Twitter audience. A few weeks back, India gave the last warning to accept the amendment else legal action will be taken against the platform.
Finally, Twitter accepted the terms and conditions and it also appointed the grievance officer as asked by the officials. But the grievance officer resigned and it brought US-based global legal policy director Jeremy Kessel as the new grievance officer for India. The rules, however, call for an Indian resident for the role.
Recently, Cabinet Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Twitter account was also blocked by the Twitter team due to copyright issues. But, the minister complained about it on social media. And Twitter was heavily criticised.
