Twitter replies to Delhi Police on case filed against it under the POCSO Act

In response to the queries of the Delhi Police, Twitter on Wednesday said it has a 'zero-tolerance policy' for child sexual exploitation and has incorporated special tools to detect and remove content linked to child pornography and the accounts linked to it. 

The Delhi Police has filed a case against Twitter, the fourth since it lost legal immunity for content posted by users amid a massive row with the government. The fresh case has been filed under the POCSO and the IT Act, following a complaint by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) on May 29.

The complaint mentions that the social media platform permits children aged 13 and above to use the site and access content, thus violating the POCSO Act.

Delhi Police PRO Chinmoy Biswal said the Cyber Crime Cell is acting on the complaint and a case has been registered under sections of the POCSO Act, IT Act, and IPC.

The Delhi Police cyber cell then e-mailed Twitter, seeking details of all links which had child sexual abuse material. The police have also asked Twitter to give details of all accounts that are selling or hosting child porn content.

A spokesperson of Twitter today said, in 2019 the platform launched a feature in search prompt aimed at deterrence of child sexual exploitation. Twitter said that the prompt was developed in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs and NGOs in India to blacklist specific CSE search keywords in Hindi, English, Bengali, and Kannada.