Two days after Ghaziabad Police police booked Twitter Inc, Twitter Communication India Pvt Ltd and others, more troubles are brewing for the US-based social media giant as a complaint has been filed against it, its India MD Manish Maheshwari, Bollywood actor Swara Bhaskar, journalist Arfa Khanum Sherwani and others for giving communal colour without fact checking truthfulness of an incident.
The complaint has also named Mohammad Asif Khan and was filed on June 16 at Tilak Marg police station by an Advocate Amit Acharya.
An official said they are certifying the complaint and they will register a case only after that.
In his complaint Acharya alleged that some people had posted a video on social media of a man identified as Abdul Samad Saifi, who was beaten, thrashed and his beard was chopped off. "It was also contended that the miscreants were from Hindu community and they made Saifi to chant Vande Matram and Jai Shei Ram against his wishes," Acharya alleged.
He further alleged that Khan, Sherwani, Bhaskar, who have their social media account "got inspired from the incident and started a propaganda to spread hate amongst the citizens".
He said that the these users have lakhs of followers on Twitter and knowing the fact that their tweets have an impact in the society, "they gave communal colours to the incident without fact checking the truthfulness of the incident".
"The concerned tweets were floated across the social media with the motive of hampering harmony and peace amongst the religious groups," the advocate said.
He added that the tweets "did not indicate their personal opinions, instead showed their intentions of the users to initiate conspiracy against religious harmony in the country to encourage hate and enmity between the religious groups".
He also alleged that the users "knowingly shared the false information and thereby committed offences under several sections of the Indian Penal Code".
Acharya in his complaint also mentioned the findings of the Ghaziabad Police and said, "Saifi and the other miscreants already knew each other. Saifi had sold a 'tabeez' to them guaranteeing positive results. And when it did not show positive results the miscreants beat him up. The police took cognizance and arrested three persons in connection with the incident."
He said that the Ghaziabad Police also issued a statement on the intervening night of June 14 and 15 on its Twitter handle regarding their findings.
"In spite of clear information available, the users used this incident to communalise and spread hate amongst the religions," he said.
Charging the Twitter, Twitter India and its MD, Acharya said, "Twitter Inc, Twitter India, its MD Maheshwari did not take any action to remove these false tweets knowing the fact that the incident didn't have any communal angle.
"Also it did not filter these tweets as manipulated media having the sole objective to disturb the peace and harmony among the citizens."
The advocate further alleged that this is not the first time that these users have been accused of spreading false and hateful information through these platforms.
"I request to get an FIR registered against Khan, Bhaskar, Sherwani, Maheshwari, Twitter Inc, Twitter India and investigate the matter leading to a legal end by getting the alleged persons punished as per the laws of the land," Acharya added.
Earlier, Ghaziabad Police had booked Twitter Inc, Twitter India, Mohammad Zubair, The Wire, Congress leader Shama Mohammad and several others.
