Ghaziabad video: Twitter India head issued legal notice by UP police

New Delhi, June 18: The Uttar Pradesh police have sent a legal notice to the India head of Twitter over the Ghaziabad video.

Manish Maheswari, Managing Director, Twitter India has been asked to report to the police station at the Loni Border and record his statement within seven days.

Earlier this week Twitter lost the safe harbour immunity in India after it failed to comply with the new IT rules, which requires it to appoint key officers in India.

The development came shortly after a case was filed in Uttar Pradesh against Twitter over posts on a viral video of an assault that the police say tried to incite communal violence.

The rules came into effect on May 25 and Twitter is yet to comply with them and due to this their protection as an intermediary has gone. Twitter is liable for penal actions against any Indian law just as any publisher is, sources said.

Twitter was accused of not removing misleading content linked to an incident in Ghaziabad on June 5, in which an elderly Muslim man had alleged that his beard was cut off and he was forced to chant Jai Shri Ram and Vande Mataram by a group.

The police however said that the incident was not a communal one. In fact the man in question Sufi Abdul Samad was attacked by six men-both Hindus and Muslims as they were unhappy with the amulets he had sold to them. The FIR charged Twitter and several journalists for inciting communal sentiments with posts sharing the allegations made by the man of the assault.