Twitter suspends defence.pk account for photoshopped image of Indian student

Defence.pk administrator denies knowing the photograph used was photoshopped

Twitter suspended verified account of "Pakistan Defence" [@defence.pk] reportedly over a complain filed by an Indian student from New Delhi whose photograph had been misused by the handle.

SCREENSHOT

Twitter handle @defence.pk used a photoshopped an image of Kawalpreet Kaur holding a placard reading “I am an Indian but I hate India because India is a colonial entity that has occupied nations such as Nagas, Kashmir, Manipurs, Hyderabad, Junagadh, Sikkim, Mizoram, Goa and tweeted it on November 17 with the caption: “Indians are finally realising the truth; their country is actually a colonialist entity.”



The account, which links to its website www.defence.pk - calls itself a "one-stop resource for Pakistan defence, strategic affairs, security issues, world defence and military affairs” in its bio, has been suspended for violating Twitter rules and regulations.

Other than running malicious campaigns against several Pakistani journalists/activists, defencepk was also morphing photos to further its propaganda: pic.twitter.com/qK7ZLQM29G

— Naila Inayat (@nailainayat) November 18, 2017

The original photograph had Kaur holding a sign that read: “I am a citizen of India and I stand with the secular values of our Constitution. I will write against communal mob lynching of Muslims in our country. #CitizensAgainstMobLynching.”

On November 18, Kaur replied to @defence.pk's tweet urging them to take it down. "I hope this is not official defence page of Pakistan otherwise there is a real security concern if you use morphed pictures just to spread hate across nations," she wrote.

I hope this is not official defence page of Pakistan otherwise there is a real security concern if you use morphed pictures just to spread hate across nations. Please put it down.

— Kawalpreet Kaur (@kawalpreetdu) November 18, 2017

The account was then reported to Twitter leading to its suspension.

Kaur later tweeted with a thank you to those who reported the account:

The account of @defencepk has been suspended by twitter for posting my unverified & morphed pictures. Grateful to all who reported it in large numbers. The message of the picture shouldn't be lost in these dark times. No nation wants lynchings & killings. Only bigots wants hate.

— Kawalpreet Kaur (@kawalpreetdu) November 18, 2017

The account of @Horus who allegedly administers the Twitter account for defence.pk was also suspended.



The Facebook account for Pakistan Defence uploaded a status shortly after the account was suspended saying, "Team Pakistan Defence has not launched any new Twitter handle yet, we are talking to Twitter for the recovery of our handle. If we decide to launch a new account, we will post its link here on our fb page. Thank you for your support and prayers.

Horus from team Pakistan Defence."

[fbpost link="https://www.facebook.com/pakistanidefence/posts/10155466860992663"]

In comments within the status, the account holder stated that, "All the rumors on why our page was banned are inaccurate. The only reason given by Twitter has been "banned for using multiple accounts". We don't have any multiple accounts."

In response to a commentator, the administrator said, " We are aware of the picture posted through our account. We didn't know at the time of posting that the picture was fake. Nonetheless, we will continue to support Kashmiri cause."