Amid the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Council of Heads of State (CHS) Summit, India has blocked the Government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account.
News of this became evident as an Indian journalist Suhasini Haider, currently covering the SCO Council of Heads of State (CHS) Summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, tweeted a picture of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Vladimir Putin of Russia in conversation.
Pakistan govt handle calls Putin-Sharif tete a tete at SCO the "photo of the moment" https://t.co/8cpVgPRJDN
— Suhasini Haidar (@suhasinih) September 16, 2022
The original tweet was shared by the Government of Pakistan’s Twitter handle along with a picture. Suhasini Haider had quoted the tweet. So, moments after Suhasini Haider’s tweet, one of her followers pointed out that her quoted tweet isn’t visible. They pointed out that the tweet can’t be seen in India as there is a chance it has been withheld in India.
This quoted tweet can't be seen in India it seems- it has been withheld in India.
— Amarjyoti Borah (@AmarjyotiBorah1) September 16, 2022
Later a screenshot confirmed the same, that the Government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account had indeed been withheld in the country.
— anirudha 🫐🍑🌼 (@anirudhax) September 16, 2022
On September 13, Twitter’s former security chief, Peiter Zatko, told a United States (US) Senate hearing that the Indian government forced the micro-blogging website to hire two persons who were likely ‘government agents’ and had access to sensitive user data.
Peiter Zatko alleged that Twitter had violated its agreement with users by giving access to their data to a government agent. He also told the hearing that it was his belief that the government agent placed at Twitter by the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) government was there to asses if the social media giant would be willing to agree with censorship demands.
Later in June, Twitter in India withheld accounts of journalists Murtaza Ali Shah, Rana Ayyub, and C.J. Werleman.
