National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on Thursday asked Facebook to remove a video posted on Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Instagram profile, revealing identify of a ‘minor girl victim’s family.
New Delhi [India], August 13 : In a letter to Facebook, the Child Right’s body asked to take ‘appropriate action’ against his profile for violating the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. Earlier, Twitter suspended the accounts of the Congress party, and several of its leaders, including Rahul Gandhi for violating the rules of the microblogging site, after Gandhi tweeted a picture of the victim’s family. Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi alleged that the microblogging site is a “biased platform” and follows the government’s directions. In a video statement, the Congress leader questioned if India would let a company define the politics of the country. “A company is making its business to define our politics and as a politician, I don’t like that. This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country. This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi, this is not simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down,” Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said. On Thursday, clarifying its position regarding blocking accounts of Congress party and several of its leaders, Twitter said its rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone on its service. In a statement, a Twitter spokesperson said the microblogging site will continue to take proactive action if its rules are violated. “The Twitter Rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone on our service. We have taken proactive action on several hundred Tweets that posted an image that violated our Rules and may continue to do so in line with our range of enforcement options. Certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and our aim is always to protect individuals’ privacy and safety. We strongly encourage everyone on the service to familiarise themselves with the Twitter Rules and report anything they believe is in violation,” the spokesperson said. Citing the reason behind blocking accounts, the company said it was alerted by National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) about specific content on the platform that allegedly revealed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim’s (and a minor’s) parents. “We reviewed it against Twitter Rules and policies, as well as the concerns expressed as a matter of the Indian law,” stated the spokesperson. “As explained in our Help Center, if a Tweet was found to be in violation of the Twitter Rules, and has yet to be deleted by the account holder, we hide it behind a notice and the account remains locked until the Tweet is removed or the appeal is successfully processed,” they added. On August 1, a nine-year-old girl was allegedly raped and killed by a priest and three employees of a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment in southwest Delhi, the police had said.
