Uttar Pradesh Police sends notice to Twitter over Ghaziabad assault video

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Noida: The police in Ghaziabad lodged an FIR against social media giant Twitter, some journalists and opposition politicians over them sharing a video clip -- about an attack on an elderly Muslim man by some young men and claimed to be their intentional attempt at disrupting peace.

366 FIRs have been lodged in a year over allegations of disruption to communal harmony through posts and comments on various social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, the state police said.

Ghaziabad Police sent legal notice to Managing Director of Twitter India over viral video of an elderly man in Loni being assaulted with the intent of "provoking communal unrest"

The MD has been asked to come to the Police Station Loni Border & record the statement within 7 days pic.twitter.com/u5Ct8Omq6l

— ANI UP (@ANINewsUP) June 18, 2021

UP Police's Additional Director General (Law and Order) Prashant Kumar said police in districts across the state regularly monitor online activities through their social media cell and ensure action over objectionable content.

According to Ghaziabad (Rural) Superintendent of Police (SP) Iraj Raja, no communal angle was found in the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off.

"A total of five accused have been arrested in the case. We will take strong action against them. The complainant had initially told us he had no prior contact with the accused, but their call records show us otherwise. We will also take action (against the complainant) for providing some wrong facts," he said.

Ghaziabad Police filed FIR against nine entities, including Twitter India in connection with the Loni incident.

In the FIR, the Police had said, "There is no communal angle to the incident in Loni where a man was thrashed and his beard was chopped off. The following entities -- The Wire, Rana Ayyub, Mohammad Zubair, Dr Shama Mohammed, Saba Naqvi, Maskoor Usmani, Salman Nizami -- without checking the fact, started giving communal colour to the incident on Twitter and suddenly they started spreading messages to disrupt the peace and bring differences between the religious communities."

"Another 366 cases were lodged during the same period over social media posts and comments that disrupted communal harmony in the state," the officer stated in a statement.

Besides these, 623 cases were lodged over social media users misusing the platform for any other reason by their posts or comments, he added.

He said social media content is reviewed every day at the UP Police headquarters in Lucknow and necessary guidelines and instructions are issued to police at district level.