Farmers Movement Archive

Twitter suspends a/cs linked to stir, govt hand alleged

Bathinda: The Twitter accounts of those associated with the farmers protest against three contentous laws have been suspended temporarily, according people managing the handles. The accounts of Kisan Ekta Morcha, the IT cell of Samyukt Kisan Morcha, Tractor2 Twitter (being operated by some professionals led by Sydney-returned IT professional Bhavjit Singh), farm organisation BKU Ekta Ugrahan, a news magazine and many more were suspended on Monday. All accounts which have been suspended were active in spreading information about happenings at the protests. SKM has termed the move an example of an undeclared emergency in the country. It also said the central government was misleading the nation and the world by making claims that Union agriculture minister Narendra Singh Tomar was a phone call away in resuming talks on proposal given by government, but it was doing the opposite and stopping the outflow of information. Baljit Singh, head of SKM IT cell whose Twitter handle Kisan Ekta Morcha was suspended, said, “Every day in the morning, we were giving a hashtag for Twitter users to use. It used to get tens of thousands of posts in only few hours from India and many other countries, and the point used to get viral. Going by it, Twitter on Monday suspended our account and many other accounts. It has been done under directions of the government to stop flow of information.” Bhavjit Singh, who is running Tractor 2 Twitter, said their account was suspended on Monday, describing Twitter’s action as shameful. “It shows Twitter is acting on the directions of the central government to stop the flow of information from going to the outer world. It seems the government is planning a big crackdown as suspension of such a large number of Twitter accounts points towards it,” he said.

The Times of India

2021-02-02

Chandigarh