The Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police on Tuesday said it has blocked 23 accounts on Twitter for showing child pornographic content.
According to Prashant Gautam, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (IFSO), after receiving the information, we immediately registered an FIR on September 20 and seized the evidences.
“We wrote to Twitter to block the accounts and sought details of the accounts from the microblogging site. We immediately formed four teams —two technical and two working on ground. The investigation is underway and we are also waiting for the reply from Twitter regarding the accounts,” said the DCW. “"In last operation which was conducted along with the district police across the national Capital in December 2021 and January 2022, the IFSO has registered a total of 189 cases and arrested 132 people," he added.
The IFSO is planning to conduct another operation in a few days, officials said. Meanwhile, Delhi Commission for Women said that it was not satisfied with the replies received from both Twitter and Delhi Police officials in the Child Pornography complaint. On September 20, the DCW had issued summons to Delhi Police and social media platform ‘Twitter’ regarding presence of several tweets on Twitter which were displaying child pornography.
“These tweets were openly depicting videos and photographs of sexual acts involving children. Almost all the tweets were portraying children completely naked and many of them also depicted brutal rape and other non-consensual sexual activities with children and women. Shockingly, some of these videos even depicted rape with children and women while they are asleep!,” the DCW official said.
“Twitter India Policy Head Samiran Gupta and Twitter Inc. Compliance Officer Vinay Prakash appeared before the Commission on September 26. They informed that all the accounts flagged by the commission have been deactivated. However, they submitted an incomplete reply. “They sought time from the Commission to submit a detailed reply and the same has been granted,” said DCW. “Further, senior officers from Delhi Police appeared before the Commission and informed that an FIR has been registered in the matter on September 20, under sections 67/67A/67B of Information Technology Act.
However, they stated that due to lack of response from Twitter in the matter, they have been unable to ensure arrests,” said the DCW.
“The Commission took a strong note of this and told Twitter India to assist the investigation and provide all information sought by Delhi police in the matter,” said the DCW official. “Delhi Police failed to provide complete information in the matter and hence has been directed to appear before the commission again on September 30,” the DCW official added.
DCW Chief Swati Maliwal said that it is disturbing that Delhi Police is yet to make arrests in this matter and reach out to the survivors.
“Further, Twitter must explain the steps they have taken to ensure that such objectionable videos no longer get uploaded on its platform and the illegal videos that are existing are removed. They must be accountable to the people of the country and should not allow illegal acts to take place on their platform,” said Mailwal.
