DCW Chairperson Swati Maliwal has written a letter to CBI Director seeking his urgent intervention in the matter of availability of child porn and rape videos and photographs on the social media platform Twitter.

The commission has identified 14 more tweets depicting sexual activity with children.

Earlier on 20th September, Maliwal had summoned Twitter India Policy Head and Delhi Police Cyber Cell over tweets depicting child pornography and rape videos of women and children over Twitter.

“Some of the twitter accounts engaging in these criminal acts appeared to be running a racket wherein they sought money for providing pornographic and rape videos of children. In response, Twitter removed more than 20 tweets flagged by the Commission from its platform and Delhi Police registered an FIR under sections 67/67-A/67-B IT Act. Delhi Police senior officers appeared before the Commission today and informed that they set up 8 expert teams and have conducted raids across the country. Delhi Police have arrested 3 accused in the matter till date,” the DCE informed.

The Commission termed the response of Twitter in the matter as ‘casual’.

In a statement issued by the Commission, it was stated that while Twitter claims to have zero tolerance policy towards child sexual abuse, they are unable to explain the presence of hundreds of videos displaying child porn and rape of children and women on their platform.

“They must inform the commission the resources and steps put in place by them to ensure that their platform is rid of such objectionable content at the earliest,” stated DCW.

Maliwal stated, “I am deeply troubled by the continued presence of child pornographic content on Twitter. When we checked on Twitter today, we found 14 such tweets and there appear to be hundreds of them. In one such tweet which has been viewed 514K times, a school girl is shown having sex in her uniform. In another tweet which has been viewed 363K, a ‘mother’ is shown to be having sex with her 8 year old boy! How can Twitter allow such illegal and filthy content to run on its platform? Delhi Police has initiated action on our complaint.”

“I have also written to CBI Director seeking his urgent action in the matter. Twitter must be held accountable. They must ensure that their platform is freed from child pornographic content. The commission will continue its action in the matter until stringent steps are taken by them and child pornographic content is removed from the platform,” she added.