Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari has been named in an FIR filed over the platform's recent display of an incorrect map of India. This comes mere days after he was sent a legal notice over a viral clip of an elderly man being assaulted in Ghaziabad. At the time, the microblogging platform had been accused of "doing nothing" to stop the video from going viral.
According to the lastest update by news agency ANI, Maheshwari has been booked under Section 505 (2) of IPC and Section 74 of IT (Amendment) Act 2008 for showing wrong map of India on its website.
As per an NDTV report, the latest FIR was filed in Uttar Pradesh by Bajrang Dal leader Praveen Bhati. Amrita Tripathi, Head, News Partnerships of Twitter India was also reportedly named.
The ongoing rift between Twitter and the Indian government received fresh impetus on Monday after a distorted map of the country went viral. The glaring distortion, which showed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as separate country, had appeared on the career section of Twitter website under the header 'Tweep Life'. It was eventually removed amid heavy backlash, calls for boycott and demands for strict action against the microblogging platform.
This is not the first time that Twitter has misrepresented India's map. Earlier, it had shown Leh as part of China. Sources said the government is seriously looking into the matter. In this case, since the wrong depiction is on Twitter's website, the case is not that of an 'intermediary' but of a publisher which is responsible for content. The company for its part is yet to comment on the entire episode.
(With inputs from agencies)
