New Delhi, June 22, 2021 (PPI-OT): Caving in to the pressure by Modi-led fascist Indian government, Twitter has restricted 50 tweets in connection with the assault of an elderly Muslim man in Loni, Ghaziabad. As per the information on the Lumen database, Twitter received a legal request from the Indian government on June 17 for taking action against 50 tweets. According to Twitter officials, access to tweets pertaining to the video showing the alleged assault of Abdul Samad Saifi and his beard being cut off have been withheld.

In a Facebook live later, Saifi alleged that the accused had offered him an auto ride, taken him to an isolated spot and beaten him up, forcing him to chant ‘Jai Shri Ram’. Upon clicking on the blocked URLs listed on Lumen database, a message saying the tweet has been “withheld in India in response to a legal demand” is displayed. According to sources, these tweets contained content related to the said video clip.

Twitter and the government of India have been at loggerheads over multiple instances in the past months, including during the farmers’ protest and later when the microblogging platform tagged political posts of several leaders of the ruling party BJP as “manipulated media”, triggering a sharp rebuke from New Delhi. Twitter has an estimated 1.75 crore users in India, as per data cited by the government recently.

Earlier this month, Twitter had blocked accounts of Punjabi rapper JazzyB, Sydney-based hip-hop artist L-Fresh the Lion and two others following demands by the Indian government. This year, more than 500 accounts were suspended and access to hundreds of others in India blocked after the government ordered the microblogging platform to restrain the spread of misinformation and inflammatory content related to farmers’ protests.

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