In a recent incident in Ghaziabad, a 72-year-old man, Abdul Samad Saifi, claimed that he was allegedly attacked by at least two people and forced to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. A video of the incident, which took place on June 5, was uploaded on social media a few days ago and it shows a man hitting Saifi and trying to cut off his beard as the victim tries to evade the blows.
We as expected, the secular liberal cabal started playing the victim card and propagating the lie that Abdul Samad Saifi was targeted because of his religion. However, later on, it was found that this incident had no religious angle, also the video that has been shared by many people was not genuine.
As this video was creating hatred and a sense of insecurity about the state government, the Uttar Pradesh police have initiated a stern action, where it has filed an FIR against Twitter, Alt News, several journalists, and Congress leaders over “provoking communal sentiments” in the area. Contrary to the claim made by several people, police have ruled out any “communal angle”.
The FIR filed in Ghaziabad’s Loni names journalists Rana Ayyub, Saba Naqvi, and Mohammed Zubair (Alt News). Online news platform “The Wire”, and Congress leaders Salman Nizami, Shama Mohamed and Maskoor Usmani have also been named. They have been accused of posting tweets without “verifying facts” and “giving a communal colour” to the incident.
The FIR says that these tweets were shared with a clear motive to “provoke communal sentiments”, and these “misleading” posts were re-tweeted by thousands of people. The complaint further said the Ghaziabad Police had “put out a clarification” via their Twitter handle on Monday night, but the users did not delete the posts and Twitter took no action to remove them.
This is the first case against the social media giant where it has been held liable for third party content after centre’s new rules for online news publishing platforms came into effect.
The microblogging site “has lost the intermediary status, which was a sort of legal shield”, sources in the government said, “as it failed to comply with the new IT rules”. “Twitter is liable for penal action against any Indian law just as any publisher is. Since they do not enjoy any protection and they did not flag a video (in the case) as manipulated media, they are liable for penal action.”
The FIR against Twitter and eight others has been filed under IPC sections 153 (provocation for rioting), 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 505 (mischief), 120B (criminal conspiracy) and 34 (common intention) against them.
Fearing the action, Alt News journalist Mohammed Zubair said, “I’ve deleted the videos that I had posted. The victim’s version of him being forced to chant “Jai Shri Ram” at this point in time do not seem to add up based on my conversations with police authorities and other journalists reporting on this issue. (sic)”
It seems the UP Government has decided to take stern action against these fake news peddlers and communal bigots, who always spread fake news and create a divide within the society.
