Image Courtesy: The Print
After CEO Jack Dorsey’s ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’ controversy last year, Twitter has found itself in the midst of another ‘caste’ row in India.
Yesterday, Professor DilipMandal questioned the officials of the micro-blogging website ON its criteria for verification of accounts. Accusing Twitter of being ‘casteist’ he’d said that there weren’t even a 100 users from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes or Other Backward Classes – intellectuals, scholars and even the general public whose accounts had been verified.
Trending the hashtag#CasteistTwitter and #JaiBhimJaiMandalJaiBirsa he said that it wasn’t a blue tick he was looking for, but wanted to bring awareness to the fact that Twitter had upper and lower caste decisions.
In support of his campaign, the #BhimArmy reached the Twitter office and locked it demanding a meeting with the officials in the said matter.
Today, after Twitter suspended around 250 user accounts from the SC, ST and OBC community, the protestors have waged another digital war saying that #TwitterHatesSCSTOBCMuslims. Users have accused the social media giant for even verifying the account of the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for they work in the welfare of minorities.
Professor Mandal has now stated that he is ready to give up the blue tick or ‘neelijaneu’ which was given to him by Twitter after his campaign last evening.
Suggesting that Twitter stop discriminating among people and suspending accounts on a whim, he has demanded one criteria – verifying that the person posting is genuine – as the benchmark for verification.
While the right-wing caste supremacists have begun their fascist ideological trolling by trending the hashtag#ट्विटर_पर_राज_हिन्दू_का, Professor Mandal only seeks to make one point with his protest –
Every citizen has a part to play in the progress of the nation, why then does one have to rule over the other?
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