ISLAMABAD: Social media giant Twitter has dismissed a request to take action against the account of Pakistani President Dr. Arif Alvi, ruling that a post reported for allegedly violating the company’s rules had not done so.
On Sunday, Twitter informed Alvi that it had received a complaint about a tweet posted by him on August 24 about the situation in disputed Kashmir where India has imposed a security crackdown and a communication blackout since August 5, when the special status of the region was revoked by Indian parliament.
“This is Srinagar yesterday despite curfews, bans, blackouts, teargas & firing,” Alvi said on Twitter in a post that also included video footage from protests in Kashmir. “No amount of oppression & brutality can suppress the resentment of the Kashmiris against India. They want freedom at all costs. Please retweet and let the world know.”
Twitter’s response to Alvi does not specify who reported the account or how many times it was reported, but thousands of Pakistani Twitter users have been reported to Twitter over Kashmir-related posts since August 5, and around 240 accounts remain suspended.
“We have investigated the reported content and could not identify any violation of the Twitter rules,” Twitter said in a message, a screenshot of which was shared online by Pakistani human rights minister Shireen Mazari. “Accordingly, we have not taken any action at this time.”
Mazari went on to write that Twitter had “gone too far” by sending a notice to the Pakistani president, calling it in “bad taste and simply ridiculous.” However, the message from Twitter was not to reprimand him but to the contrary, to inform the president that his tweet was acceptable within the social media company’s rules.
Pakistani Minister for Communication Murad Saeed has also received a notice for a Kashmir-related tweet.
On August 5, the Indian government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in a bid to fully integrate India’s only Muslim-majority region with the rest of the country, the most far-reaching move on the troubled territory in nearly seven decades.
Anticipating unrest, authorities immediately moved to launch a clampdown in Kashmir by suspending telephone and Internet services and putting some leaders under house arrest. But in Pakistan, politicians, army officers and average citizens took to social media websites in the millions to accuse India of human rights violations in the territory at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility between the two countries.
Twitter has since suspended over 230 accounts in connection with Kashmir-related posts but the company denies the suspensions are politically motivated or biased in favor of India, as Pakistan has alleged.
“We enforce our policies judiciously and impartially for all users — regardless of their political beliefs and country of origin,” a spokesperson for Twitter said in response to email queries by Arab News last week.
In June 2017, Twitter announced that it would start labeling tweets by world leaders that violated its rules but which still served the “public interest.”
