Delhi Police block 23 Twitter accounts for posting child pornography, rape videos

Following the DCW’s notice, the police said they registered a case under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the IT Act. Twitter accounts were analysed and the police wrote to the microblogging platform asking it to take down the accounts.

Prashant Priya Gautam, DCP (cyber crime unit) said, “We immediately formed four teams to analyse all the objectionable tweets and highlight the users. At present, 23 accounts have been blocked by the platform at our behest. We also asked for information on the users since many of the accounts are run by anonymous individuals and groups. We have not received a reply on the user information yet.”

The photos and videos posted by the users showed children involved in sexual acts and many of them also promoted rape. The DCW had earlier said that they found nearly a hundred accounts with disturbing and horrific content. “The accounts engaging in these criminal acts appear to be running a racket wherein they seek money for providing such content,” DCW officials said.

While the police have blocked the accounts, no arrests have been made in the case. Sources said it is a challenge to identify the users without information from the social media platform. “We have written to Twitter to help us in the case. The accused live across the country and can be anywhere at present,” said an officer.

The DCW said they sent multiple notices to Twitter India and the police as the tweets were not immediately deleted by the platform. “We have sent repeat notices because the police failed to make arrests and such content is being openly shared,” said an officer.