Twitter Has Flagged an Indian Politician’s Message From Several Years Ago for Breaking Its Policies

By Michael Head On Apr 20, 2022 0

T. Raja Singh, an Indian politician, has had a message from him flagged by Twitter for breaking the company’s policy days.
He also encouraged India’s Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and other citizens of the country to deport Rohingya Muslim immigrants, especially those who “supported terrorism,” from the country, saying that they would become “a headache for the nation” in the future if they were not deported. “#DeportRohingyaMuslims,” he wrote in a tweet.

Singh, who is a member of India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, and has made anti-Semitic remarks in public appearances in the past, also urged his supporters to make his tweet “viral” on social media platforms so that it is seen by “every Hindu and [other] Indian” who visits the site. After being contacted for comment, he did not react.

The remark is similar to one that Singh had previously placed on Facebook, which finally resulted in the Menlo Park-based company permanently banning him from the social media platform.

Because of Facebook’s initial inaction in response to Singh’s tweets, the social media platform has gotten some of the toughest criticism it has received in the country to date. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that a top Facebook executive in India had decided not to take action against Singh’s tweets because she thought it would harm the company’s business prospects in the nation. Singh has denied the report.

In a response to TechCrunch, a Twitter spokeswoman stated that Singh’s message had been “actioned” due to it being in violation of the social media platform’s hateful conduct policy.

To combat threats of violence, abuse and harassment, and hateful activity on Twitter, the company has implemented zero-tolerance measures.” “If we come across any accounts that are in violation of these guidelines, we will take appropriate action,” the representative continued.

A tweet from Singh’s account on September 13 shows a warning message from Twitter, stating that his account has been locked because of the aforementioned tweet. Singh has retweeted the message from his account. Since September 13, Singh has sent out a number of tweets in which he appears to be hinting that the situation has been settled. The aforementioned tweet continues to demonstrate that it is in violation of Twitter policies.

I request @rajnathsingh & @KirenRijiju to quickly start the process of deporting #RohingyaMuslims its a big threat to India’s security https://t.co/1eIUJh3qWF

— Raja Singh (@TigerRajaSingh) September 13, 2017

Twitter, which had approximately 70 million monthly active users on its official app in India last month (according to mobile insights firm App Annie, whose data was shared with TechCrunch by an industry executive), has been particularly slow — or unresponsive — in the country in responding to user reports, despite reports from users.

Twitter was accused of organizing a fraudulent Twitter campaign in January to win support for a controversial law — something that has happened before in India — but the firm did not reply to requests for comment. Snowfall in Kashmir, a very sensitive region that has been without an internet connection for months, became a trending topic on Twitter in the United States a month before that. Many journalists questioned how it had made it onto the list, and the item inexplicably vanished after that.