Guwahati: India has blocked access to the Pakistani government’s Twitter account. According to reports, there have been two similar incidents recently.
This account was now visible although it had been blocked earlier in July. Once more, the account’s statement about being withheld in India was visible today.
“@GovtofPakistan account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand,” is seen while accessing the Twitter handle.
Twitter policies state that this type of action is only taken in response to a legitimate legal requirement, such as a court order.
Currently, the Twitter feed of the Pakistan government “@GovtofPakistan” is not visible to Indian users.
Six Pakistan-based YouTube news stations were among the 16 that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had previously blocked for propagating false information about India’s national security, foreign policy, and law and order.
Such withholdings will be limited to the specific jurisdiction that has issued the valid legal demand or where the content has been found to violate local law(s), Twitter said. “It may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time if we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity,” Twitter said.
Twitter in India shut down the government-run accounts of Pakistan’s embassies in the UN, Turkey, Iran, and Egypt in June.
India shut 8 YouTube-based news channels, including one from Pakistan and one Facebook account for disseminating “false, anti-India propaganda” online later in August of this year.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a statement that the measure was done by imposing emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021. The transfer was given the go-ahead on August 16.
It was discovered that the prohibited Indian YouTube channels were tricking viewers into thinking the news was real by utilising sensationalised and phoney thumbnails, pictures of news anchors, and the logos of specific TV news programmes.
For propagating hate speech against India, the central government has so far blocked more than 100 YouTube channels, four Facebook pages, five Twitter accounts, and three Instagram profiles.