Pakistan summons Indian diplomat over recent blocking of Twitter accounts

Islamabad, July 2: The Foreign Ministry of Pakistan, in a statement, stated that it has summoned Indian Charge d’Affaires (Cd’A), Suresh Kumar, to Islamabad on Friday to register a “strong” protest over the recent blocking of certain Pakistani Twitter handles in India.

 

The Indian government had recently banned official Twitter accounts of several Pakistani diplomatic missions, journalists and some prominent personalities under the Information Technology Act, 2000.

 

 

"The Indian Charge d’ Affaires (Cd’A) in Islamabad was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today and a strong demarche was made on the Indian government’s blocking of access to content of 80 accounts on Twitter including accounts of Pakistan’s diplomatic Missions in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, UN-New York and the national broadcaster Radio Pakistan, by activating geo-blocking and censorship laws," the Foreign Office of Pakistan stated.

 

 

It accused India of an attempt to curb “pluralistic” voices. "The Cd’A was conveyed that these Indian actions were against the international standards, obligations, norms, and framework of flow of information and reflected the alarming pace of shrinking space for pluralistic voices and curbing of fundamental freedoms in India," it added.

 

Pakistan has called this move as" the new illegal practice employed by the Indian government of regulating the internet sphere with regard to diplomatic accounts, with a clear intent to stifle dissent stood completely against the rights to access to information and fundamental freedom of opinion or expression."

 

 

It has urged India to "immediately reverse its actions relating to the blocking of Pakistan’s diplomatic Missions’ Twitter accounts in India," adding that "India must also abide by the established international norms and standards as espoused by the United Nations and also ensure protection of fundamental freedoms and respect for dissent."

 

Twitter India has banned the Twitter accounts of Pakistan Embassies in UN, Turkey, Iran, and Egypt for their access in India. Twitter India has also withheld the account of Radio Pakistan which is the national broadcaster of Pakistan. This came after Pakistan has been continuously propagating a fake agenda against India on the world stage.

 

 

As per the report by the Digital Forensics, Research, and Analytics Center (DFRAC), many Pakistani accounts were also behind the hashtags that were running the propaganda against many Indian institutions. For e.g. the Jammu and Kashmir. India’s Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had blocked 16 YouTube Channels which also included six Pakistani Channels.