Twitter account of Pakistan government withheld in India

New Delhi: The Twitter account of the government of Pakistan was withheld in India on Saturday (October 1, 2022). According to the reports, the action has been taken in response to a legal demand. However, no official statements have been released by either side so far. 

The Twitter account of the Government of Pakistan withheld in India pic.twitter.com/60Uzpoujwz — ANI (@ANI) October 1, 2022

This is reportedly the second such incident in recent months. Earlier, this account was withheld in July as well but had been reactivated and was visible. On October 1, 2022 again the account displayed the message of being withheld in India- "@GovtofPakistan account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.”

According to Twitter guidelines, the microblogging site takes such action in response to a valid legal demand, such as a court order.

In June, Twitter in India banned official accounts of Pakistan Embassies in UN, Turkey, Iran and Egypt. Later in August this year, India blocked 8 YouTube-based news channels, including one operating from Pakistan and one Facebook account for posting "fake, anti-India content" online.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in a statement that the action was taken by imposing emergency powers under Information Technology Rules, 2021. The orders for the move were on August 16. 

The blocked Indian YouTube channels were observed to be using fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors and logos of certain TV news channels to mislead the viewers to believe that the news was authentic.

So far, the central government has blocked over 100 YouTube channels, 4 Facebook pages, 5 Twitter accounts and 3 Instagram accounts for spreading hate contact against India. 

(With agency inputs)