Amravati: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday stated strongly that Twitter should shut down its business in India if it cannot comply with the court's directions to remove objectionable posts made by many against the judiciary and judges.
The High Court was hearing a matter of defamation of the judiciary and judges on the social media platform. A bench headed by Chief Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra and Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy lashed out at Twitter asking it to explain why 'cease and desist' orders should not be given against it before the next hearing.
The bench remarked that Twitter was "playing games" with the court by bringing up technical issues. "In order to provide services in India, one has to respect the laws and court orders here," the bench said.
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The court ordered that a full report in the form of an affidavit should be placed before it by the next hearing. Assistant solicitor general SV Raju who was appearing for the CBI said the defamatory posts were still visible on Twitter, despite the high court's categorical directions to take them down.
"Twitter has removed content from the handles of those who declared their nationality as Indian. The abusive content is still available on the handles of those who, despite being residents of India, declare their nationality as that of some foreign country," Raju said.
Appearing for Twitter, Saransh Jain responded that the technology has been designed to work that way and it applies to all social media platforms. However, the judges pointed out that YouTube took down all the URLs regarding the offensive posts, and they were no longer visible in other countries.
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