Twitter removes “blue ticks” of big leaders of BJP-RSS

New Delhi: Social network site Twitter on Saturday removed the “blue tick” or verified badges from the personal handles of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu and RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat. The Sangh and the Modi government are very angry with this.

According to sources in the right-wing voluntary organization, the Twitter accounts of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, his associates Suresh Soni, Arun Kumar, Suresh Joshi and Krishna Kumar had lost the verification badge.

The removal of the blue tick has sparked a new tussle between the government and Twitter, which has been at a standstill after the social media company classified some posts by some BJP leaders targeting the opposition Congress as “manipulative”.

The Ministry of Electronics and IT may issue a notice to Twitter asking why it was done without “prior notice”. “This is a contempt of constitutional post. Twitter wants to test India’s patience,” the ministry said. However, hours after the objection was reportedly raised by the Vice President’s office
Blue Tick has been restored.

On the other hand, Twitter said in its statement that, “Verified Status was removed from @MVenkaiahNaidu for inactivity. The account referred to is inactive since July 2020. As stated in the Twitter Verification Policy, Twitter has blue verified badges and verified status.” If the account becomes inactive or is incomplete. The verified badge of the Vice President’s account has now been restored.”

Twitter said, “Deactivation is based on logging in. To keep the account active, the account holder must ensure to log in at least every 6 months. The last tweet from Naidu’s account was on July 23, 2020.” ”

However, government sources called it an outrageous act against the country’s “number 2” constitutional head. He pointed out that the accounts of former Union ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj remained verified long after their death in 2019.

“The Vice President is above politics. This is a constitutional post. Can Twitter do this to US leaders in constitutional positions,” IT ministry sources questioned. But the IT Ministry did not cite any US leader’s policy against Twitter.

Twitter’s act of “verifying” the account of former BJP president Venkaiah Naidu, who has been Vice President of India since 2017, is controversial in the midst of clashes with the government over a range of issues, including its stand on the new digital rules.

After flagging “freedom of expression” concerns over the new rules, Twitter appointed an Indian interim grievance redressal officer, but is yet to name a compliance officer and a nodal officer mandated by the Centre’s rules.

Shortly after the flap on Venkaiah Naidu’s account, the IT ministry sent a notice to the social media giant asking “one last chance” to abide by or be prepared to face the consequences.

READ MORE FROM NEWS READERS