Pakistani embassies and other well-known people’s Twitter accounts are blocked by India.
Pakistan implores Twitter to reinstate account access right away and make sure that democratic freedoms for speech and expression are upheld.
ISLAMABAD: According to information that surfaced on Monday night, India has banned the Twitter accounts from Pakistani embassies in a number of locations as well as other journalists who have written negative articles against Prime Minister Narendra Modi there.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad condemned the Indian move and expressed his worry on Twitter, writing: “Deeply disturbing that India has stopped the flow of information on Indian Twitter through withholding access to government accounts.”
The official Twitter handles of Pakistan’s embassies in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and the United Nations were blocked in India.
He said, “These are in addition to several others about which access has been prohibited.”
The spokesman expressed concern over India shutting down Pakistani embassy Twitter accounts and stated, “Diminishing space for a multiplicity of views and access to information in India is really concerning. International standards must be followed by social media sites.
He asked Twitter to maintain adherence to democratic rights to free speech and expression and to immediately restore access to their accounts.
“Accounts were suspended due to a legal demand.”
Additionally, in accordance with the Information Technology Act of 2000 of India, the microblogging website has blocked The News London correspondent Murtaza Ali Shah’s account there.
The Pakistani reporter’s profile has been restricted in India due to a “legal demand,” according to Indian journalist Aditya Jha.
He said on Twitter: “Indian authorities have blocked the account of Pakistani journalist @MurtazaViews in accordance with a court order.”
Murtaza Ali Shah posted the following message from Twitter: “Hello @MurtazaViews, We have blocked the function effectively in India in accordance with the Information Technology Act of 2000 in order to uphold Twitter’s duties under local laws there.
It is Twitter’s policy to inform account holders if we receive a legal request from an authorized entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) asking us to remove content from their account. This is because Twitter firmly believes in defending and respecting the people who use our service. Whether or not the user resides in the nation in which the request originated, we offer notification, it said.
The journalist cited the most recent voting events for the Khalistan Referendum in Italy and claimed that these events were legal and that governments and law enforcement in the UK, Switzerland, Italy, Europe, the USA, and Canada saw no crime or legal infraction in the holding of the “Khalistan Referendum” as a legitimate political activity.
Prior to this, according to Shah, the Indian government denounced his Twitter for covering London-based rallies for Kashmiri independence.
On both occasions, Twitter had notified Shah that no Twitter policies had been infringed but that he was being told of the allegations the Indian government had made against his account.
According to reports, the Indian government has already compelled Twitter to remove hundreds of accounts belonging to international supporters and leaders of Khalistan.
Previously, Twitter has also deactivated the accounts of certain Indian and foreign journalists who opposed the Narendra Modi-led administration.
CPJ Asia: New censoring trend is unacceptable
The Asia Desk of the Committee of Protect Journalists (CP) responded by stating that the new trend of social media censorship is unacceptable in light of the removal of journalist Rana Ayyub’s tweet as well as the barring of writer CJ Werleman’s account in India.
“This has to end! A democracy needs the voices of journalists, the CPJ Asia stated on its Twitter account.
