REMOVAL OF COMMUNAL HASHTAGS FROM TWITTER;TELANGANA HC ISSUES NOTICE

Communal hashtags were trending on twitter which were offending towards the Muslim community and alleged them for spreading corona virus deliberately .Therefore a petition was introduced in court to stop usage of such community offending hashtags. Plea seeking the removal of communal hashtag was heard in Telangana HC and a notice was issued  with keeping plea in concern.

The division bench comprised by Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy has issued notices to the Central Government, the State Government and to Twitter.

HC asked the respondents to submit the affidavits in response to the case within time of 4 weeks and also to explain why such hashtag were not removed

The petitioner Adv. Khaja Aijazuddin also earlier approached to Supreme Court to stop the websites from posting Islamophobic content which hurt sentiments of Muslim .He stated that such posts are contrary to the India laws, particularly the Indian Penal Code, which prohibits and penalizes “insulting the religion, hurting the feelings of the community and disturbing the communal harmony of the Country”. He also state that in fact WHO mentioned that religion  shall not be attached to pandemic.

SC however refused to attend case but asked petitioner to approach Telangana HC ,and so the case is filed in Telangana HC further hearing to be done after 4 weeks. Petitioner has requested to remove such trending  hashtags and content that is against particular religion .

   By :Ritika Negi of LCD