ISLAMABAD – The Twitter handle of Pakistan’s popular defence related portal, Defence.pk was suspended mysteriously on Saturday.
The verified account, with followers ranging in millions was banned apparently after scores of Indian social media users complained about a morphed image uploaded through the handle.
The image which is believed to have been behind the suspension was of an Indian lady ‘Kawalpreet Kaur’ who held a placard protesting against the moblynching of Muslims in India.
The twitter handle of Defence.pk uploaded the same image, however the placard was edited suggesting that the lady ‘hated India’ for its colonial entity.
Soon after the image was uploaded, Indian social media buffs took to Twitter in droves and sought action against the portal, after which the account was suspended.
What bothered the Pakistani users was the fact that a mere photo shopped image led to the suspension of a verified account, however, scores of accounts handled by separatists and terrorists were openly propagating their narratives flouting the policy guidelines.
One such account is of Allah Nazar Baloch, Chairman of the Baloch Students Organization and the chief of the Baluch Liberation Front, who issues threats to armed forces through the micro-blogging site, without facing any suspension.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/opinion/blog/allah-nazar-baloch-brags-about-past-attacks-in-a-tweet-while-twitter-keeps-an-ambiguous-silence/
This isn’t the first time Twitter’s policies raise suspicions. In September 2017, Donald Trump tweeted against North Korea and despite complaints, Twitter didn’t take any action, however, gave an explanation that ‘newsworthiness’ was the factor it considered for monitoring the tweets.
