Pakistan approaches Twitter, Facebook over suspension of accounts 'posting in support of Kashmir'

Maj Gen Ghafoor says reason for suspended accounts is Indian staff at regional headquarters of social media giants

Pakistan military spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor on Sunday announced that Pakistani authorities have taken up a case with Twitter and Facebook for suspending Pakistani social media accounts that posted messages in support of Kashmir.

The director general of the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced the move through his personal Twitter account.

He said the reason behind the suspended accounts was the Indian staff at the regional headquarters of the social media giants.

 

Pakistan authorities have taken up case with Twitter & Facebook against suspending Pakistani accounts for posting in support of Kashmir. Indian staff at their regional Headquarters is the reason. Please post in reply suspended accounts that you know.

— Asif Ghafoor (@peaceforchange) August 17, 2019

He also requested social media users to respond with information about accounts that have been suspended.

His tweet follows the brief suspension of the Twitter account of The Express Tribune's defence correspondent on Friday after he replied to the irresponsible veiled nuclear threat hurled by Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.

Writing on his verified Twitter handle, Singh had hinted that India could end its policy of ‘No First Use’ of nuclear weapons “depending on the circumstances”.

Pakistani journalist's Twitter briefly suspended over reply to Indian minister's nuclear threat

However, when Kamran Yousaf, the defence correspondent at The Express Tribune, replied to Singh’s tweet, his Twitter handle was immediately suspended.

“As soon as I published my tweet, my Twitter account was suspended and no reason was cited for the move,” Yousaf said. “I was at a loss to understand why my account was suspended as my tweet did not violate any don’ts of the microblogging site.”

Then a friend advised Yousaf to delete his last activity on Twitter. “As soon as I deleted my reply to Singh’s tweet, my account was restored immediately,” he added.

Indian officials have admitted that they have been putting pressure on the Twitter management to block the accounts of Pakistani journalists.