New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday told Twitter to respect the people’s sentiments as it is doing business for the public at large while directing the microblogging site to remove certain objectionable material related to a Hindu Goddess from its platform.
Division Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a plea seeking to delete objectionable tweets and content with regard to Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
“You are doing business for the public at large, their sentiments shall be given due importance,” the court said, suggesting the tech giant remove the content as it did to an objectionable tweet by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Further hearing in the matter is listed for November 30.
The court was hearing a petition filed by lawyer Aditya Singh Deshwal against highly objectionable posts about Hindu Goddess Maa Kali put by a Twitter user @AtheistRepublic.
The petition filed through advocates Ashok Kashyap, Ridhima Gaur and Deepa Malik, said, “the said objectionable posts have shaken the collective conscience of the followers and practitioners of Hinduism.”
In order to expose the identity of culprits behind these objectionable posts, the plea sought direction to preserve all the electronic evidence associated with the Twitter user @AtheistRepublic and @cficvictoriabc. It also sought directions to Delhi Police to take cognisance of the complaint made by the petitioner with immediate effect.
The plea contended that Twitter user @AtheistRepulic has put filthy and degrading content about every religion.
The petitioner has sought direction to the Centre, being the appropriate government under Information Technology Act, 2000, to issue directions to Respondent Twitter Communication India Private Limited and Twitter Inc to immediately remove the objectionable content posted by Twitter user @AtheistRepublic and permanently suspend his Twitter account.