NEW DELHI, Aug 20: Days after it asked the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to voluntarily take down his controversial post, the Facebook on Friday took the action to remove the post which had pictures of him with the family of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped, killed, and forcibly cremated at a crematorium in New Delhi.
Facebook said the post, shared on Instagram, a platform it owns, was in violation of its policies.
The company informed Gandhi that his post had been taken down, along with the reasons for the same. The Facebook had written to the leader a week after receiving summons from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR).
“According to NCPCR’s August 10, 2021 notice, a post you uploaded through your Instagram account, is unlawful under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015; Section 23 of the POCSO, 2012; and Section 288A of the Indian Penal Code. In accordance with NCPCR’s notice, you are requested to remove this post expeditiously,” Facebook had said in its e-mail to Gandhi.
The NCPCR had earlier written to Facebook, asking the social media platform to take action against Gandhi. Three days later, on August 13, it issued summons to Facebook, asking its representatives to appear in person as there was no response to its notice.
After Facebook wrote to Rahul and provided a copy of the letter to the NCPCR, the child rights panel exempted it from the summons.
Twitter had earlier removed Gandhi’s tweet with the same controversial photograph and had temporarily locked his account after the NCPCR issued a notice to the micro-blogging site and asked it to remove the tweet in question.
(Manas Dasgupta)
