India's Twitter Head Is Being Interrogated About The 'Congress Toolkit' Case By Delhi Police

On May 31, a team from the Delhi Police Special Cell questioned Manish Maheshwari, the Managing Director of Twitter in India, over an alleged "Congress toolkit" in Bengaluru.

This came a week after Delhi Police officers visited Twitter's offices in Delhi and Gurgaon to investigate on two notices issued in response to BJP leader Sambit Patra's tweet on an alleged 'Congress toolkit' that had been labelled as 'manipulated media.'

After discovering the Managing Director's responses, the police went to Twitter India's offices to deliver the third notice, according to the police, reported NDTV.

Twitter was asked to clarify why BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra's post on May 18 was labelled 'manipulated media' since it included screenshots of what he described as a 'Congress toolkit' geared at discrediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the government's handling of the pandemic.

The hashtag was created when Congress issued a statement on Twitter claiming that the claimed 'toolkit' was a hoax and that it has filed criminal charges against BJP leaders who had posted the papers.

A police team travelled to Bengaluru seven days after the workplace visit to question Mr Maheshwari. The interrogation comes as Twitter faces charges of inciting communal hatred following remarks about a June 5 assault on a Muslim man in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh.

Meanwhile, Twitter has been accused of failing to remove 'misleading' materials related to the incident, according to a lawsuit filed on Tuesday night. The intention was said to raise circumstances for riot, 'promoting enmity,' and 'criminal conspiracy' are among the charges it faces.

The incident witnessed a Muslim man said to cut off the beard and recite 'Vande Mataram and 'Jai Shree ram' by a group, which later said by the UP Police that the incident was nothing related to communal riots.

According to government sources, Twitter can no longer claim legal immunity in India for user posts due to a failure to comply with new IT laws requiring the company to establish India-based officers, including a Chief Compliance Officer. Whereas the Union Minister stated that several chances were provided to Twitter for complying with the New IT Rules. The government, on the other hand, has not stated if Twitter has lost its intermediate status, which protects social media companies from third-party content on their platforms.