Twitter India MD Manish Maheshwari booked by police for wrong map of India

The Uttar Pradesh Police have arrested Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in connection with the platform’s website exhibiting an incorrect map of India.

Twitter On the complaint of a Bajrang Dal leader in Bulandshahr, India country head Manish Maheshwari was charged under Section 505 (2) of the IPC and Section 74 of the IT (Amendment) Act 2008 for displaying the incorrect map of India on the company’s website.

Issue ?

The issue revolves around a controversial map of India in the careers section of Twitter, which showed Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh as separate countries.

The map’s obvious distortion, which appeared on Twitter’s career section under the heading ‘Tweep Life,’ sparked outrage among netizens, who demanded strict action against the microblogging platform, which has previously broken a number of rules.

Twitter and the government have clashed on several occasions in recent months, including during the farmers’ strike and later when the microblogging platform labelled political posts by several members of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media,” prompting a sharp rebuke from the government.

Most recently, the US digital giant has been engaged in a tussle with the Indian government over the new social media rules.

2nd FIR against Twitter

The Uttar Pradesh government had earlier this month filed an FIR against Twitter in connection with an incident in Ghaziabad’s Loni where an elderly Muslim man was allegedly assaulted.

The video of the incident was allegedly shared to incite communal unrest, according to the police.

The FIR also named Twitter Communications India, a news website, journalists, and three Congress leaders, Salman Nizami, Maskoor Usmani, and Shama Mohamed, in addition to Twitter Inc.

The Ghaziabad police later sent a notice to Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari, asking him to join a probe in connection with the case.

The Twitter India MD, however, offered to join through video conference. Later, Manish Maheshwari did not appear before the UP Police as the Karnataka High Court restrained police from initiating coercive action against him.

Manish Maheshwari filed Caveat

On June 26, Maheshwari filed a caveat with the Supreme Court, requesting that he be heard before any orders are made in any appeal filed by the Ghaziabad police against the relief granted by the Karnataka High Court.

The Karnataka HC had on Thursday granted interim relief to Maheshwari in a case relating to an assault video that had gone viral on the microblogging platform.

The HC had also directed that no coercive action be taken against him till Tuesday.

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