A 43-year-old journalist and director has approached a city magistrate court against Twitter India and its CEO Elon Musk for cheating and copyright violation by allegedly stealing his idea of a different coloured tick for accounts of persons such as the heads of state.
Twitter now has a grey tick for government institutions, official or multilateral organisations while he had suggested a red tick. Andheri-based Rupesh Singh alleged in his application that the company's fraud has caused him a loss, apart from physical and mental torture. He alleged they have committed offences under sections 420 (cheating), 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Copyright Act.
Singh said after research, experiment and analysis he came up with the idea of a different colour for verified accounts of heads of state so that common persons are able to differentiate between them and other prominent persons. At the time, all verified handles had a blue tick. Attaching screenshots of his tweets as proof, he said he had shared the idea with the company and Musk on their wall and in May last year, had officially shared his idea with them through his Twitter handle.
However, to his “utter shock”, they did not reply to his idea but implemented it a few months later around December-January. He said he was not given due credit or remuneration though they were aware that the idea is exclusively owned by him and he held the copyright over it. Singh has sought that the court takes cognisance of his complaint, summon the accused and try them for the offences.
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