Kisan Ekta Morcha (KEM,) the official handle of the farmers’ struggle, The Caravan and multiple media personnel lost access to their twitter accounts on February 1, 2021 “in response to a legal demand.”
According to KEM member Baljit Singh, the incident was reminiscent of the time Facebook had momentarily unpublished their Kisan Ekta Morcha page on December 20, 2020.
He asked, “We work on the twitter handle from 7 AM starting with a new hashtag that trends every day. We received no legal notice that this would happen. People who worked with us to talk about the farmers’ struggle also lost access to their accounts. What kind of a government is this? Is it this scared?”
Other accounts of the ‘The Caravan,’ activist Hansraj Meena, and ‘Tractor2twitr’ flash the sign of their accounts being withheld. A non-exhaustive list tweeted by AltNews Co-Founder Mohammed Zubair can be viewed below:
So @thecaravanindia‘s twitter account is withheld in India. pic.twitter.com/VaGun4GBg4
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) February 1, 2021
Tractor2twitr immediately took to a backup account where it condemned the government for this new form of “suppression of dissent.”
This is the height of suppression of dissent.
Those who speak for farmers are being silenced.
Its an emergency in making.#Emergancy2021— Tractor2ਟਵਿੱਟਰ Backup (@tractor2twitr_b) February 1, 2021
Twitter guidelines state that the platform can withhold access to certain content in a particular country if it receives “a valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity in that country. We also clearly indicate within the product when content has been withheld.”
While the details of these “legal demands” are not known, Singh said that all concerned people are following up with the social media platform for an explanation of the sudden decision. The Facebook page is functioning as usual.
Earlier, the Delhi Police lodged an FIR against ‘The Caravan’ for allegedly misleading by providing false information that a farmer died in police firing at the ITO intersection on January 26, 2021. However, the media channel stood its ground.
Account holders are yet to know details regarding the demands.
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