Pakistan asks India to unblock Twitter accounts of Pak missions, radio

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday called upon India to immediately reverse the blockage of Twitter accounts of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions and Radio Pakistan to adhere to the established international norms and standards of freedom of expression as espoused by the United Nations, and desist from employing subterfuges to control the global Internet domain.

Islamabad’s demand came after it expressed concern over the news emanating from the Indian and US media that the Indian government had attempted to infiltrate the security system of eminent social media platform, Twitter, by forcing it to employ an Indian “agent/representative”.

The Foreign Office as usual took its time to respond to Delhi’s attempts of infiltration as the news was carried by the media several days ago. “As per media reports, the matter came up during Twitter’s briefing to India’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology where legal depositions made in the US by a former Twitter employee were also discussed”, said the Foreign Office. Regrettably, it added, a large number of Twitter handles particularly those belonging to Kashmiri political leaders and media persons continue to remain blocked due to India’s frivolous legal objections.

Only last month, Pakistan also lodged its protest with the Indian government over the blocking of access to content of several Twitter handles of Pakistan’s diplomatic missions as well as the national broadcaster Radio Pakistan.

“Pakistan deplores India’s brazen abuse of state-power and strong-arm tactics to manipulate and force-regulate the Internet sphere. These actions are not only against international standards, obligations, norms and framework of flow of information but also reflect the alarming pace of shrinking space for pluralistic voices and curbing of fundamental freedoms in India,” the Foreign Office said.