INDIA ORDERS TWITTER TO BLOCKED 1,178 ACCOUNTS AMID FARMERS’ PROTEST

Mon 08 February 2021:

The Indian government has asked microblogging platform Twitter to remove over a thousand more accounts for allegedly spreading misinformation and provocative content around farmers’ protests. It has said that the 1,178 listed handles have Pakistani and Khalistani users, official sources have said. The social media site is yet to completely comply with the order, they said.

Earlier, on January 31, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had sent a list of 257 handles and tweets to be blocked for similar reasons. Twitter blocked these accounts for few hours before unilaterally unblocking them shortly after.

On February 4, the ministry shared the fresh list flagged by security agencies as accounts of Khalistan sympathisers or backed by Pakistan and operating from foreign territories, threatening public order amid the farmers’ protest.

“Many of these accounts were also automated bots that were used for sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative contents on farmers’ protests,” a source said.

A few days ago, Twitter global CEO Jack Dorsey had “liked” several tweets made by foreign-based celebrities in support of farmer protests, sources said. In view of this, the platform’s defiance of the government’s order to block the accounts raises several questions.

“The government also objects to Twitter CEO liking some tweets by celebrities as it raises questions on his neutrality,” the source said.

The latest move comes amid the “toolkit” controversy surrounding the farmer protest. Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg had last week tweeted a “toolkit” which she later deleted. This document, according to the police, aimed to spread disaffection and ill-will against the government of India and sought to create disharmony among various social, religious, and cultural groups.

Indian External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday said there was a reason why his ministry reacted to the remarks of celebrities like Ms Thunberg.

“I think it (“toolkit”) has revealed a lot. We have to wait and see what comes out. You can see there was a reason why the foreign ministry reacted to the statements which some celebrities gave out on matters on which they obviously didn’t know very much,” Mr Jaishankar said.