New Delhi: Facebook has asked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to remove his post from Instagram where the identity of the family of a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in southwest Delhi was revealed, the apex child rights body National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) said. The NCPCR shared with this agency copies of the letter that Facebook forwarded to it in response to its summon to the social media giant.
“A post you uploaded through your Instagram account is unlawful under Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015; Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012; and Section 288A of the Indian Penal Code. In accordance with NCPCR’s Notice, you are requested to remove this post expeditiously,” Facebook said in its letter to Rahul Gandhi.
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Following the communication from Facebook, the NCPCR withdrew its direction to the company to appear before the commission with an explanation over non-action over Rahul’s post. Instagram, a photo and video sharing social networking platform, is owned by Facebook.
The NCPCR had last week asked Facebook to take appropriate action against Rahul’s Instagram profile over violation of provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012, and the Indian Penal Code, and demanded the removal of the video from the platform.
Section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, prohibits the disclosure of identity of a child in any form of media and Section 23 of the POCSO Act, 2012, also states that no information or photo of a child should be published in any form of media which could reveal the identity of the child. This information under Section 23 of the POCSO Act includes his/her name, address, photograph, family details, school, neighborhood or any other particulars which may lead to disclosure of identity of the child.
Rahul last week met the family of the nine-year-old girl and asserted that he is with them on the path to justice and ‘will not back down even an inch’. Later, he posted a picture of his meeting with the girl’s parents on Instagram.
The girl died under mysterious circumstances when she went to get water from a cooler at a crematorium in the Old Nangal area in southwest Delhi. The girl’s parents alleged that she was raped and her body forcibly cremated by a crematorium priest who had falsely claimed that she was electrocuted.
Hundreds of locals, including the victim’s parents, have been staging a protest near the site of the incident, demanding capital punishment for the accused.