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Pakistan Miffed Over Suspension of 200 Twitter Accounts

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New Delhi (Sputnik): With tensions running high between India and Pakistan over developments in the Kashmir region, about 200 Twitter accounts have been suspended by the micro-blogging site after objections by the Indian Government, a media report said.

The move has been objected to by the Pakistan Army as well.

The Pakistani government has notified Twitter about the suspension of 200 accounts posting about Kashmir, Indian news agency IANS quoted a Pakistani daily as saying.

Since the government of India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the state into Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh as federally administered Union Territories, a large number of Pakistanis have been expressing their outrage against India’s move.

Many Pakistanis reported about their suspended accounts on Twitter, leading to #StopSuspendingPakistanis becoming a popular trending topic in Pakistan.

The accounts reportedly suspended, included accounts of Pakistani journalists, activists, and even some government officials.

Pakistani Army spokesperson Major General Asif Ghafoor recently took to Twitter saying authorities have taken up the matter with Twitter.

He even alleged that Indian employees working at the regional headquarters of Facebook and Twitter could be behind the suspension of Pakistani accounts.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s digital media adviser told the newspaper Dawn, the Pakistan Telecommu­nication Authority (PTA) has officially has complained to Twitter’s regional office.

"We are approaching this case with a multi-pronged strategy where PTA has sent the complaint mentioning (200) accounts to the regional office seeking an explanation for their suspension", he said.  

“We are also working on a long-term strategy through the National IT Board (NITB) so that such a situation does not arise again", he said.

Twitter, however, has denied any bias and maintained their take on the suspensions by saying, “We believe people on all sides of an issue have a fundamental right to discuss them within the boundaries of our policies, which prohibit terrorism, hateful conduct, platform manipulation, and abuse. At Twitter, no one is above our rules".

Kashmir has been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan since the countries gained freedom from British colonial rule in 1947. Both govern part of the region, but claim it in full. They also fought two wars over Kashmir.

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