After a complaint by a businessman, the Delhi Police Special Cell has registered an FIR against several Instagram accounts for allegedly promoting enmity between different religious groups. This might result in Instagram coming under the lens of the Modi government after Twitter.
Manjeet Singh Chugh, a businessman, armed with screenshots and links to the posts, filed a complaint after which Delhi Police Special Cell registered an FIR against several Instagram accounts. Since then, such accounts have been blocked.
Chugh said, “We have WhatsApp groups with Gurudwara committee members and received several posts. I called local police on June 7 and told them about the accounts. They have posted pictures of Hindu gods and Sikh Gurus with objectionable and vulgar comments. The owners or the accounts are trying to spread hatred through this. They have also posted about the farm protests.”
The FIR states that the posts are part of a “conspiracy by foreigners who are trying to disturb the environment” in the country. The FIR has been filed against the accounts and unknown persons under IPC section 153 A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc).
An officer aware of the developments, while speaking to The Indian Express, said, “We have already blocked the said Instagram accounts and will soon ask the social media platform to furnish details about the users. We are investigating the matter.”
It is pertinent to note that the same was happening on Twitter and after it failed to comply with Indian law, the Indian government took action on the social media giant and now it has lost the intermediary status in India.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, shared the news that Twitter had lost its ‘immunity’ granted under Section 79 of the IT Act in the country, despite being granted multiple opportunities to comply with the same.
He said, “Twitter was given multiple opportunities to comply with the same, however, it has deliberately chosen the path of non-compliance.”
There are numerous queries arising as to whether Twitter is entitled to safe harbour provision. However, the simple fact of the matter is that Twitter has failed to comply with the Intermediary Guidelines that came into effect from the 26th of May.
— Ravi Shankar Prasad (Modi ka Parivar) (@rsprasad) June 16, 2021
As reported by TFI, India had fixed five million registered users as the threshold for defining a significant social media company as an intermediary. After the deadline to adhere to the new IT guidelines elapsed last month on May 26, social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Google, and Twitter ran the risk of losing their status as “intermediaries” and could have become liable for criminal action if they did not comply with the revised regulations.
While initially, all the aforementioned companies tried to stall adhering to the policy change, the government had to step in and use an iron fist to set things in motion. Although Facebook sent its subsidiary WhatsApp to the court to sue the government, it had to return empty-handed and accept the government’s decision.
Of late, Instagram has come under the scanner of the Indian government for promoting anti-Hindu content and it was forced to remove the content after massive outrage.
Earlier this week, Facebook-owned Instagram informed the Delhi High Court that it had removed the objectionable posts on Hindu deities present on its social media platform. Representing Facebook, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi conveyed that the content had already been removed and assured that keeping in view the grievance raised by the petitioner, the respondents will not disseminate the copies of the petition to any unrelated third party.
As reported by TFI, Facebook was referring to the complaint filed against its subsidiary Instagram by a Delhi resident named Manish Singh for reportedly showing Hindu deity Bhagwan Shiva in a bad light. In the story section of Instagram, a GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) of Lord Shiva could be seen with a wine glass in one hand and a mobile phone in the other hand with a smirk on the face. Naturally, the Hindus on social media were enraged at the portrayal of their holy deity in such a lewd manner.
The complainant had alleged that the “accused (Instagram) was deliberately and intentionally hurting the feeling and sentiments of the millions and millions of Hindus, including the complainant, by portraying the Supreme God, Lord Shiva, in such a state.” Consequently, Manish demanded that a criminal case be registered against the CEO of Instagram and other officials under sections 153 and 295A of the Indian Penal Code and relevant sections of the Information Technology Act.
It is encouraging to see that the social media giants are finally being made to comply with Indian law.