Indian Court Asks Twitter to Show 'Respect' and Remove 'Objectionable' Content About Hindu Goddess

In May, Delhi's High Court issued a legal notice to Twitter demanding it comply with the country’s updated IT rules, which state the social media platform must make specially assigned grievance officers available for users to make complaints.

The Delhi High Court on Friday asked Twitter to remove certain objectionable material relating to a Hindu Goddess from its platform.

The bench of Chief Justice D. N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said: "You should respect the sentiments of the general public as you are doing business for the public at large. Their sentiments shall be given due importance... You should remove this."

"Are things going to be removed or not?" the court asked the counsel for Twitter. In response, Sidharth Luthra, a senior advocate representing the micro-blogging platform, said the company will abide by the court's ruling.

The court was hearing a petition filed by Aditya Singh Deshwal, who said he came across posts about Maa Kaali (a Hindu Goddess) by a user named @AtheistRepublic – the deity was apparently represented in a "disgraceful and outrageous manner."

Deshwa said he complained to a Twitter grievance officer about the content, arguing it broke the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021. He said the officer stated that the content couldn't be removed because it did not fall into a specific category – and the court's ruling followed.