Surprisingly, or perhaps, unsurprisingly, the social media platform Twitter has become a player in the dispute between Pakistan and India over India’s illegal actions in Indian-Occupied Kashmir (IOK). It has served as the medium through which Pakistani leaders have expressed their condemnation, most notably seen by Prime Minister Imran Khan’s tweets where he likens Modi’s Hindu Supremacist government to the Nazi ideology of ethnic cleansing and genocide. It has also been a platform for diplomacy on the Kashmir issue, evidenced by the recent tweet of US President Donald Trump. Most importantly, Twitter has become the tool through which the rest of the world derives their information on what is going on in Kashmir, since the Indian government has imposed a complete media blackout on IOK.
Twitter’s increasing role in giving voice to the voiceless is not unprecedented- the social media site has played a role in many movements aimed at overthrowing oppressors. What is surprising this time around is that Twitter, in the case of the Indian occupation of Kashmir, is choosing to highlight the oppressor’s voice and is clamping down on those that speak up against Indian violations of human rights in IOK.
This can be noted in the way that Twitter has suspended down around 200 accounts which were posting about Kashmir and shedding light on Indian atrocities. DG ISPR Maj Gen Asif Ghafoor had said the authorities had taken up with Twitter and Facebook the suspension of Pakistani social media accounts posting content in support of Kashmir. According to Dawn, some of the accounts suspended include handles of government officials as well, which are suspended for easily verifiable reasons such as “impersonation”.
Although Twitter claims that it is not biased, the facts, of Pakistani accounts being suspended while Indian accounts tweet gleefully about occupying and oppressing Kashmiris, show otherwise. The people of IOK have been deprived of Twitter and their free speech by Modi’s government, and now, the people shedding light on their sufferings are being silenced as well.