High Court slams Twitter for blasphemous posts against Hindu deities

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court chided Twitter for not blocking blasphemous posts against Hindu deities. The court said that the site is not bothered about the sentiments and religion of other people in the world, IANS reported.

The division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla said, "If you feel sensitive, you will block, and you do not feel sensitive about the other ethnicities or people of other regions... If the same kind of thing were done against other religions, you would have been more serious." The bench was hearing public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate Adity Deshwal, who alleged that a Twitter handle named the Atheist Republic had posted several objectionable contents, despite complaints. Twitter has not taken down the account or the posts the PIL alleged.

When senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Twitter, said that the platform could not take down posts on its own, but with government or court order, the court replied that Twitter had taken down the account of former United States President Donald Trump.

Meanwhile, the Union government informed the court that there is a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) between Twitter and the government in blocking user handles. As per the SOP, if more than five messages in a 60-day period are found to be violating norms, then the account can be suspended. That is when the court asked, "If this is the logic, why have you blocked Mr Trump?"

The court posted a further hearing on the matter for September 6.