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India
"Pakistani, Khalistani Supporters Spreading Misinformation On Protests": India Asks Twitter To Block 1,178 Accounts
|The development comes after the recent controversy of the 'Toolkit' that was shared by Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg, which she later deleted and uploaded a new document.
The Centre has asked social networking platform Twitter to remove 1,178 accounts, allegedly spreading misinformation and provocative content about the ongoing farmers' protest.
The listed handles have Pakistani and Khalistani users, NDTV quoted the sources.
The development comes after the recent controversy of the 'Toolkit' surrounding the protest. The toolkit was shared by Swedish Climate activist Greta Thunberg, which she later deleted and uploaded a new document.
According to the police, the document aimed to spread 'disaffection and ill-will' against the Indian government and sought to create disharmony among various social and religious groups.
This notification comes while Twitter is yet to comply with the earlier order and act on the government's previous complaints. On January 31, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had sent a list of 257 accounts to be blocked. Initially, Twitter blocked the accounts, including The Caravan magazine, farmer unions, a popular Bollywood actor and many activists. Shortly after this created an uproar among netizens, Twitter reversed the decision and restored all the accounts.
Later on February 4, the ministry shared the new list flagged by security agencies, stating the accounts were of Khalistan sympathisers or backed by Pakistan and operating from foreign territories.
"Many of these accounts were also automated bots that were used for sharing and amplifying misinformation and provocative contents on farmers' protests," the media outlet quoted the source.
The source also pointed out tweets of several international celebrities liked by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. "...it raises questions on his neutrality," the source said.