Delhi HC raps Twitter for non-action against account

The Delhi High Court on Monday expressed displeasure with microblogging site Twitter for non-action against an account for posting objectionable material/content related to Hindu Gods and Goddesses and observed that the social media platform does not feel “sensitive” about the issue.

“It’s like if you feel sensitive then only you take action, if you would have felt sensitive then you would suspend the account but you don’t feel sensitive about other ethnicities or people of other religion then you show an inability to suspend the account,” the court observed. The observations of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla came on Monday while hearing a petition by Aditya Singh Deshwal who stated that he came across some highly obnoxious posts about Goddess Maa Kaali put up by a user with the name @AtheistRepublic and the deity was represented in a “disgraceful” and “outrageous” manner.

Remarking on Twitter’s submission that its policy doesn’t allow blocking of an individual account, the bench asked, “Then why even the account of former United States President Donald Trump was suspended?”

The High Court later directed Twitter to file responses having detail of its policy regarding permanently blocking an account on its platform and also sought the response of the Government of India to file an affidavit with the detail of standard operating procedures related to microblogging sites and blocking of individual account etc. The court posted the matter for 6 September 2022, in the matter.

Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Siddharth Luthra appearing for Twitter clarified that they have removed objectionable content and related URLs. Advocate Vrinda Bhandari appeared for Athiest Republic and submitted that she should be heard before passing any order against Atheist Republic. The court directed to array Atheist Republic as a respondent in the case.

Earlier, the court had asked Twitter to remove certain objectionable contents relating to Hindu Goddess from its platform and observed that the social media shall respect the sentiments of the general public as it was doing business for the public at large. The petitioner sought direction to Twitter to remove the objectionable content from its platform and also permanently suspend the concerned used account.