Amid an increasing crackdown on online free speech across India, Telangana police sent a notice to X seeking the removal of over 41 social media posts related to news and commentary on an incident involving Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members slapping a Urdu teacher in Telangana’s Nizamabad district.
What happened? On June 27, some Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members entered Bharat Chandra School in Armoor, Nizamabad district, and physically assaulted Amer, an Urdu teacher, allegedly because he was teaching Urdu to his students.
The video shared by The South First shows a man in a white shirt and pants slapping the teacher while abusing him using Telugu vulgar words, all in the presence of a police officer and multiple individuals recording the incident on their smartphones. Police reportedly arrested both BJP members as well as the Urdu teacher.
“What is unlawful about reporting what happened in front of police that is caught on camera?” asked The South First’s Editor Anusha Ravi Sood on X while confirming that Hyderabad police sent a notice to X under Section 79(3)(b) of the IT Act seeking removal of over 41 posts. Under this section, online intermediaries (like social media platforms or internet service providers) can lose their “safe harbor” legal immunity if they fail to act on the government’s or court’s takedown or blocking requests.
What was the Telangana police’s rationale behind seeking removal of 41 posts? Hyderabad-based Independent researcher Srinivas Kodali posted the first page of the notice issued by the Telangana police to X on June 29, two days after the above-mentioned incident. Their reasons for seeking removal were:
- Posts with communal overtones could invoke passions and retaliatory actions: “The said content is being shared widely and, on account of the sensitive communal overtones, has the potential to inflame passions, provoke retaliatory reactions, and adversely affect law and order in the district and adjoining areas.”
- Those posts allegedly had “unlawful information”: “You are hereby directed with utmost urgency to forthwith remove, disable access to, block, and prevent further circulation of the URLs/posts/accounts/pages/groups/reels/stories listed in the annexure to this notice. The impugned content constitutes unlawful information and, upon receipt of this notice as actual knowledge from the competent authority, you are required to act immediately in accordance with law.”
“The excuses @TelanganaCOPs gave to order X to block posts informing the public of violations against minorities. This is just absurd,“ wrote Kodali on X.
TG police wanted fact-checker Zubair’s post taken down: Among the posts targeted was one by Mohammed Zubair, a fact-checker and Alt News editor. “So Hyderabad Police @hydcitypolice sent an email asking X to remove my tweet claiming that this content violates Indian law. @revanth_anumula“ he wrote. This is the…
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