Unsatisfied with Twitter India’s response to the removal of child pornography content from the microblogging site, the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) has approached the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to start an investigation into the matter.
DCW chief Swati Maliwal on Friday said that many videos are still available on the popular platform. She also said that DCW has approached the investigation agency and filed a complaint to unearth the whole activity.
Two weeks ago, Maliwal claimed that a lot of video content related to child abuse and sex was being sold at ₹20 on Twitter. She had registered an FIR with the Delhi Police as well.
She had summoned Twitter India Policy Head and the Delhi Police Cyber Cell over tweets depicting child pornography and rape videos of women and children on Twitter. Some of the Twitter accounts engaging in these criminal acts appeared to be running a racket wherein they sought money for providing pornographic and rape videos of children.
In response, Twitter removed more than 20 tweets flagged by the Commission from its platform and Delhi Police registered an FIR under sections 67/67-A/67-B of the IT Act.
Delhi Police senior officers said that they set up eight expert teams and conducted raids across the country. It also arrested three accused in the matter.
The Commission termed the response of Twitter to the matter “casual”. In a statement, the Commission stated that while Twitter claims to have a zero-tolerance policy towards child sexual abuse, they are unable to explain the presence of hundreds of videos displaying child porn and rape of children and women on their platform. They must inform the commission of the resources and steps put in place by them to ensure that their platform is rid of such objectionable content at the earliest.
Maliwal told the media that she was deeply troubled by the continued presence of child pornographic content on Twitter. “When we checked on Twitter today, we found 14 such tweets, and there appear to be hundreds of them. In one such tweet, which has been viewed 514K times, a schoolgirl is shown having sex in her uniform. In another tweet which has been viewed 363K, a ‘mother’ is shown to be having sex with her 8-year-old boy!
“How can Twitter allow such illegal and filthy content to run on its platform? Delhi Police have initiated action on our complaint. I have also written to the CBI Director seeking his urgent action on the matter,” she said.
“Twitter must be held accountable. They must ensure that their platform is free from child pornographic content. The commission will continue its activities in the matter until stringent steps are taken by them and child pornographic content is removed from the platform,” she added.