Uttar Pradesh police books Twitter India chief Manish Maheshwari in distorted map row

Uttar Pradesh police swang into action and lodged an FIR against Twitter India Managing Director Manish Maheshwari in connection with the micro-blogging site displaying a wrong map of India.

Maheshwari, along with other persons, has been booked under Section 505 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Section 74 of IT (Amendment) Act 2008 based on a complaint by a Bajrang Dal leader in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh.

Twitter's career website, Tweep Life, had shown Union Territories Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh outside India. The distorted map that was flagged by a Twitter user evoked angry reactions and demand for action, the map, however, stands corrected now.

Maheshwari faces earlier notices from UP police as well. The Ghaziabad police had on June 17 issued him notice with regard to a complaint related to tweets on the assault of an elderly Muslim man in the district's Loni area. Maheshwari approached the Karnataka High Court which directed that no coercive action be taken against him till June 29.

READ: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad says Twitter denied access to his account for nearly an hour

This is not the first time that Twitter has misrepresented India’s map. In November 2020, the micro-blogging website showed Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir instead of the Union Territory of Ladakh. The Central government had issued a legal notice to Twitter for disrespecting India's territorial integrity.

This is the latest in the ongoing feud between the Government of India and  Twitter over the new IT Rules. The Centre has slammed Twitter for deliberate defiance and failure to comply with the country's new IT rules. The new rules which came into effect on May 25 mandate social media companies to establish a grievance redressal mechanism for resolving complaints from the users or victims.