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Twitter withholds accounts of Punjab farm outfits over Moose Wala’s SYL
On Centre’s complaint, Twitter freezes accounts of outfits tweeting on Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s song SYL despite ban
A day after Punjabi singer Sidhu Moose Wala’s posthumously released song SYL was blocked on YouTube in India, the Twitter handle of Kisan Ekta Morcha has been withheld in response to a complaint filed by the Centre.
Also read: Centre raises red flag, Moose Wala’s ‘SYL’ removed from YouTube
“Another attack by the Government of India on the rights of farmers and workers,” the Kisan Ekta Morcha posted on its Instagram account shortly after.
The handle that managed to keep its hashtags trending throughout the farmer agitation, Tractor 2 Twitter (@Tractor2twitr), was also withheld by Twitter on the government’s demand. Tractor 2 Twitter is managed by 8-10 young activists from different states, who took the farmers’ issues from ground zero to the online space and became their voice on social media.
The email from Twitter to Tractor2twitr reads, “In order to comply with Twitter’s obligations under India’s local laws, we have withheld the following account in India under the country’s Information Technology Act, 2000; the content remains available elsewhere.”
“The Centre has withheld our account in India for the second time. The reason behind this is the tweet put out on the ban on Sidhu Moose Wala’s song SYL. We are keeping an eye on the situation and our next move will be shared soon,” said Bhupinder Singh, a core team member of Tractor 2 Twitter.
During the farmer agitation, the Twitter account of Tractor 2 Twitter was suspended following the Centre’s recommendation to ban “farm agitation related provocative accounts”.
By Monday afternoon, both the accounts were withheld on Instagram as well. These accounts were created during the agitation against the now repealed farm laws.
Ravi Azad, a young leader of the Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU), said: “The government has banned Kisan Ekta Morcha’s Twitter handle that takes the voice of farmers to the global level. Anti-farmer activities are revealed through this account with facts and evidence. We condemn this action.”
Joginder Singh Ugrahan, the president of BKU (Ekta-Ugrahan), said the ban is an act of suppression of the voice of farmers and people. “This is in violation of our democratic rights and freedom of speech. I strongly condemn this anti-people move,” he said.
Moose Wala’s SYL had garnered 28 million views and 3.3 million likes on his YouTube page in two days before it was withheld on the video-sharing platform in India after the Centre’s complaint. The first song released after the Moose Wala’s death is focused on the four-decade-old politically complex issue of the construction of the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal (SYL). The lyrics warn that Punjab will not share its river waters if injustices meted out to it are not stopped, bringing up years of militancy in the state that led to widespread fear and social tumult. The song, leaked on social media a day earlier, was officially uploaded at 6pm on Thursday.
