Read Time: 20 minutes

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell on Wednesday, notified Twitter and sought details of accounts circulating child sexual abuse content on the Twitter platform. It must be noted that the complaint is against Twitter Inc and Twitter Communication India Private Ltd (TCIPL)

The Delhi Police PRO(spokesperson)  Chinmoy Biswal told to the media that, “Acting on the NCPCR’s complaint regarding availability of child sexual abuse and child pornographic material on Twitter, in the form of various accounts and links, a case has been registered by the cyber cell unit (CyPAD) under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Information Technology (IT) Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. Investigation into the case has been taken up"

“We will continue to invest in proactive detection and removal of content that violates Twitter rules and work with law enforcement and NGO partners in India to tackle the issue,” stated the spokesperson.

The Delhi Police Cyber Cell on Tuesday had filed a case against Twitter for child pornographic content on their platform. The present case has been registered on a complaint by NCPCR (National Commission For Protection of Child Rights).

According to what spokesperson informed, a total of 13 screenshots pertaining to child sexual abuse and child pornographic material on Twitter and the accounts that posted them were received on Monday from the NCPCR. A majority of the accounts were not accessible. But since child sexual abuse and pornographic materials were visible in the screenshots, the FIR was registered for further investigation.

It must be noted that, the country's top most child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had issued summons to the DCP of Delhi Police Cyber Cell asking to appear in person on 29^th June, 2021 on the matter of filing an FIR against Twitter over access to child pornography on the platform.

In furtherance to this Priyanak Kanoongo (NCPCR head) had stated in his statements earlier that, "Twitter was found to have given false and misleading responses during the enquiry conducted by NCPCR for the presence of pornographic and child sexual abuse matter, a grievous offence under the POCSO ACT."

The complaint further stated that, “Such material was also found to be available on Twitter where many links are within the reach of users, and they can obtain such material through different handles. These Twitter handles also provided links to WhatsApp groups through which this material can be obtained. It was also observed by the Commission that the toolkit for deep and dark web was also available on Twitter, thus giving access to all, including children, to obtain such material.”

It was further observed by the Commission (NCPCR) in their complaint that, Twitter does not report such cases to the authorities in India, which is mandatory as per POCSO Act. Instead they report the cases to a US-based agency. This in itself is a violation of the POCSO Act, which applies to the whole of India.

According to the complaint, the Commission approached TCIPL and was informed that, “Twitter Inc and TCIPL are distinct and separate companies. Therefore, they can’t control any data pertaining to any of the users. Also that, Twitter India plays no role in the operation and control of the platform and can’t furnish any details as required by the Commission.”

Further responding to the complaint, a Twitter India spokesperson said, “We have a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual exploitation, and we have a proactive approach to combat sexual exploitation of minors on our service. We will continue to invest in proactive detection and removal of content that violates the Twitter Rules and work with law enforcement and NGO partners in India to tackle the issue.”

Previously, after conducting an inquiry and finding Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on the microblogging site NCPCR directed Delhi Police to book Twitter India under Sections 11, 15, 19 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, Section 199 & 292 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and any other relevant sections of IT Act and IPC on 29^th May, 2021.

It is further noted that on May 29, a letter was issued to the secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology to initiate a ban on the access of children on Twitter on an immediate basis till the time Twitter makes its platform safe for children by ensuring complete removal of CSAM and pornographic material from their platform and also reporting of cybercrime cases by them to the authorities in India.

 

Know the Law –

Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 was passed by Parliament to protect children from sexual abuse and to set up special courts for speedy trials of cases against them.

The act defines a child as 'any person below the 18 years of age'. It is a gender-neutral act that recognises different forms of sexual abuse, including penetrative and non-penetrative assault, sexual harassment, pornography and attempt to outrage modesty of a child.

The Government recently had notified the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Rules 2020 wef 9^th March, 2021 enabling implementation of recent amendments to the Act that made punishment provisions more stringent and for the first time defined child pornography and provided for crackdown for possession of pornographic material involving children.

Section - 11. Reporting of pornographic material involving a child. - (1)Any person who has received any pornographic material involving a child or any information regarding such pornographic material being stored, possessed, distributed, circulated, transmitted, facilitated, propagated or displayed, or is likely to be distributed, facilitated or transmitted in any manner shall report the contents to the SJPU or local police, or as the case may be, cyber-crime portal (cybercrime.gov.in) and upon such receipt of the report, the SJPU or local police or the cyber-crime portal take necessary action as per the directions of the Government issued from time to time.

(2) In case the "person" as mentioned in sub-rule (1) is an "intermediary" as defined in clause (w) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of the Information Technology Act,2000, such person shall in addition to reporting, as provided under sub-rule(1), also hand over the necessary material including the source from which such material may have originated to the SJPU or local police, or as the case may be, cyber-crime portal (cybercrime.gov.in) and upon such receipt of the said material, the SJPU or local police or the cyber-crime portal take necessary action as per the directions of the Government issued from time to time.

(3) The report shall include the details of the device in which such pornographic content was noticed and the suspected device from which such content was received including the platform on which the content was displayed.

(4) The Central Government and every State Government shall make all endeavours to create widespread awareness about the procedures of making such reports from time to time.

 

12. Monitoring of implementation of the Act. - (1) The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (hereafter referred to as "NCPCR") or the State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (hereafter referred to as "SCPCR"), as the case may be, shall in addition to the functions assigned to them under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005 (4 of 2006), perform the following functions for implementation of the provisions of the Act -

(a) monitor the designation of Special Courts by State Governments;

(b) monitor the appointment of the Special Public Prosecutors by the State Governments;

(c) monitor the formulation of the guidelines described in section 39 of the Act by the State Governments, for the use of non-governmental organisations, professionals and experts or persons having knowledge of psychology, social work, physical health, mental health and child development to be associated with the pretrial and trial stage to assist the child, and to monitor the application of these guidelines;

(d) monitor the designing and implementation of modules for training police personnel and other concerned persons, including officers of the Centre and State Governments, for the effective discharge of their functions under the Act;

(e) monitor and support the Central Government and State Governments for the dissemination of information relating to the provisions of the Act through media including the television, radio and print media at regular intervals, so as to make the general public, children as well as their parents and guardians aware of the provisions of the Act.

(f) call for a report on any specific case of child sexual abuse falling within the jurisdiction of a CWC.

(g) collect information and data on its own or from the relevant agencies regarding reported cases of sexual abuse and their disposal under the processes provided under the Act, including information on the following:-

(i) number and details of offences reported under the Act;

(ii) whether the procedures prescribed under the Act and rules were followed, including those regarding time frames;

(iii) details of arrangements for care and protection of victims of offences under this Act, including arrangements for emergency medical care and medical examination; and,

(iv) details regarding assessment of the need for care and protection of a child by the concerned CWC in any specific case;

(h) use the information so collected to assess the implementation of the provisions of the Act. The report on monitoring of the Act shall be included in a separate chapter in the annual report of the NCPCR or the SCPCR.

(2) The concerned authorities mandated to collect data, under the Act, shall share such data with the Central Government and every State Government, NCPCR and SCPCRs.