Twitter has yet again found its way to be in the news. As per a report by Dawn, a case of the platform blocking access to Pakistan government’s official handle for the users in Gilgit-Baltistan has emerged. It has also changed the region’s location to Indian territory.
Even after users turned their location feature on its app, their tweets were marked as originating from India’s Kashmir. Some users trying to access the Pakistan government’s account reported seeing a message which said the account had been withheld in India due to a legal demand.
How did Gilgit-Baltistan Twitter users react?
Reacting to the issue, Yasir Hussain, a resident of Rahimabad area of Gilgit, tweeted, “I am in Gilgit-Baltistan and Twitter can’t show tweets from [the] Government of Pakistan, saying that account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand! Hello Twitter Support, I’m in Pakistan, why can’t I see tweets from various accounts I follow including the one mentioned?”
Hussain told Dawn that he was labelled to be in India’s Jammu and Kashmir after he tried adding a location to his tweets. He said the Pakistani officials should take “serious cognisance” of the matter, while also claiming that India could have “influenced” Twitter to change the region’s geo-tagging.
Another Twitter user from Pakistan-occupied Gilgit-Baltistan, Karim Shah Nizari, said that he could not add the location he wanted. “The only option we are getting is Jammu and Kashmir,” he told Dawn.
The Pakistani officials have called the claim “baseless”. “There are no restrictions on the freedom of the internet, media and expression in the entire Gilgit Baltistan,” they said.