Andhra Pradesh High Court warns Twitter to follow Indian Law or face repercussions

Nishka Srinivas Veluvali

Published On: February 01, 2022 at 17:10 IST

The Andhra Pradesh High Court rebuked the social media platform Twitter for not going by the Orders received.

Social media giant Twitter was directed to take down the abusive posts against the Indian Judiciary from the platform but the latter failed to do so.

The High Court stated that, “This is a clear Case of Contempt. We may also initiate Criminal Proceedings against Twitter going by the recent Judgement against Google where an FIR has been registered”.

The Bench consisting of Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice M Satyanarayana questioned as to why the Court should not pronoun the “Cease and Desist” Orders against it before the next hearing.

The Bench told Twitter that playing hide and seek with the Indian Laws is of no use, instead they should try to amend their ways if they want to continue functioning in the Country.

The Bench heard the submissions of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the abusive content posted on Twitter. Assistant Solicitor General SV Raju, representing CBI, informed the Court that the posts with abusive contents are still available on Twitter, despite the Court’s specific directions to remove them.

He continued, “Twitter has removed the content from the handles of those who declared their Nationality as Indian. The abusive content is still available on the handles of those who, despite being residents of India, declare themselves from foreign country. This is the case only with Twitter not with the others like YouTube or Facebook”.

Counsel Saransh Jain appearing for Twitter informed the Court that the social media platform has been designed in that way itself and it applies to all the platforms.

In response to this claim of Twitter, the Senior Counsel representing YouTube Sajan Poovayya argued that the YouTube had taken down all the video streaming platforms containing the controversial contents as provided by CBI.

The Bench has listed this matter for February 07, 2022.

Also read: New Information Technology Rules

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