Twitter Withholds Filmmaker Leena Manimekalai’s July 2 Kaali Movie Poster Tweet

Microblogging site Twitter has removed the controversial July 2 tweet of filmmaker Leena Manimekalai.

Manimekalai had released the poster of the film Kaali via a tweet which led to outrage in the country. The poster of her film depicted a woman dressed in a costume portraying the goddess and smoking.

Reacting to Twitter’s action, Leena in a tweet asked whether the social media platform would also withhold posts by “hate mongers”.

“This is hilarous. Will @TwitterIndia withhold the tweets of the 200000 hate mongers?! These lowlife trolls tweeted and spread the very same poster that they find objectionable. Kaali cannot be lynched. Kaali cannot be raped. Kaali cannot be destroyed. She is the goddess of death,” she wrote.

However, it’s not clear when Twitter actually took the tweet down.

The original tweet has been replaced by a message from Twitter.

“This Tweet from @LeenaManimekali has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” read the message.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra has been booked for allegedly hurting religious sentiments after her comment on Goddess Kali stirred a controversy. An FIR has been registered in Bhopal against Moitra under section 295A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for hurting religious sentiments.

Earlier this week, the microblogging service sought to overturn some Indian government orders to take down content on the social media platform, in a legal challenge which alleges abuse of power by officials.

Twitter has been asked by Indian authorities over the past year to act on content including accounts supportive of an independent Sikh state, posts alleged to have spread misinformation about protests by farmers and over tweets critical of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Indian government has previously said that big social media firms, including Twitter, have not complied with removal requests, despite their legal standing.

Late last month, Twitter was warned by India’s IT ministry of criminal proceedings if it did not comply with some orders. Twitter is said to have complied, so as not to lose liability exemptions available as a host of content.