New Delhi: Twitter India Thursday blocked the account of Rajya Sabha MP and Samajwadi Party leader Sukhram Singh Yadav once again.
Users trying to Yadav’s profile are greeted with a message that says, “@MPSukhram’s account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.”
Yadav’s Twitter account has 244 followers and is managed by his social media team. He had been vocal about the farmer protests in his posts, using hashtags such as #kisanektajindabad and #singhuborder.
“This is his original account which has not been verified yet. We had been trying to contact Twitter India but so far we have not received a response,” one of his team members told ThePrint.
According to his team, Yadav was among the many users whose accounts Twitter recently blocked in response to a request from the government.
“This is the second time that the account has been banned. It was also withheld on 30 January. But Twitter had to reinstate after the social media outrage,” said the member.
ThePrint reached Twitter India through email. In its response, the tech giant said: “We have no comment to share”.
ThePrint has also written to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, but is yet to receive a response.
‘Violation of my rights’
Yadav, who was elected as a member of the Rajya Sabha in 2016, has been speaking in favour of the farmers protesting at Singhu, Tikri and Ghazipur borders against the three farm laws passed by the Narendra Modi government last year.
In the last few weeks, he had posted several tweets related to the protests.
On 8 February, Yadav tweeted: “Lodged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, Gurumukh Singh, 80, and Jeet Singh, 70, are the oldest among the 122 people arrested by Delhi Police for the violence,” and used the hashtag #realseddetainedfarmers.
Talking to ThePrint, Yadav said, “I will be writing to the chairman of Rajya Sabha and the chief minister of UP against this ban. I am an elected member of the Rajya Sabha, if my account can be withheld without any communication, then what will happen to the common man’s voices?”
He added: “This is a violation of my rights as a member of the Parliament. I will demand that an action should be taken against those who are involved in silencing my voice.”
Last week, Twitter India withheld several accounts for allegedly making “fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets” with hashtags accusing the Narendra Modi government of planning farmers “genocide”.
However, in a blogpost Wednesday, the social media giant said it has withheld some of the accounts flagged by the Indian government for blocking “within India only”, but has not blocked handles of civil society activists, politicians and media as “it would violate their fundamental right to free expression” guaranteed under country’s law.
Also read: All about Section 69A of IT Act under which Twitter had withheld several posts & accounts
Ms. Jyoti Yadav seems to be solely concerned about other Yadavs. Whether its a form of casteism or not is up for debate but it surely is not a sign of healthy journalism. Such obsession hardly leads to anything fruitful.