GILGIT: Twitter seems to have bloc­ked access to the government of Pakistan’s official account in Gilgit-Baltistan and chan­ged the region’s location to parts of India, it has emerged.

In addition, when users turn on the location feature on the app, tweets sent from the region are marked as originating from India-held Kashmir.

The issue came to light after several Twitter users in GB complained they were unable to access the government’s official account from the region.

When users tried to access the account, a message was displayed stating the “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand”.

No access to govt of Pakistan account; officials term claim ‘baseless’ despite dozens of reports to the contrary

The government’s official acc­o­unt has been banned in India since March 2023. In 2022, the account was withheld twice over “legal complaints”.

“I am in #GilgitBaltistan & @Twitter can’t show tweets from @GovtofPakistan, saying that account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand! Hello @TwitterSupport, I’m in Pakistan why can’t I see tweets from various accounts I follow including the one mentioned?,” tweeted Yasir Hussain, a resident of Rahimabad area of Gilgit.

Mr Hussain told Dawn that when he tried to add a location to his tweets, he found that the app was labelling him as being in India-held ‘Jammu and Kashmir’ rather than GB.

He said officials in Pakis­tan should take “serious cognisance” of this matter as India “might have influenced Twitter to change GB’s geo-tagging”.

Dawn reached out to Twitter for comment, but the social media network’s official address for press queries only returns an automated message. The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority was also contacted for a comment, but no response was received despite several attempts.

Another Twitter user, Karim Shah Nizari also reported that he can’t add Pakistan’s location to his tweets. “The only option we are getting is Jammu and Kashmir.”

Mr Nizari told Dawn that he was based in the Yasin Valley of Ghizer district, but the Twitter algorithm was showing him tweets from India on his feed.

He added all official Twitter accounts of the Pakistani government which are inaccessible in the held Kashmir, are also not working in GB.

In June 2022, Twitter had banned a slew of Pakistani accounts including that of the Pakistani mission in the UN, Turkiye, Iran and Egypt and Radio Pakistan.

When contacted by Dawn, the GB government’s information department referred to a press release issued on the matter.

It said the claims regarding the government of Pakistan’s official Twitter account being inaccessible in GB were “baseless”.

“There are no restrictions on the freedom of the internet, media and expression in the entire Gilgit Baltistan.”

The GB government said those making such claims on social media should stop spreading fake news.

The official response reflected that the government might have erred in comprehending the issue, which was not about restrictions imposed by the authorities but rather Twitter’s suspension of the account. Even the Foreign Office, when asked to comment on the matter, referred to the statement issued by the GB government.

But while the GB Information Department claimed there were no restrictions on the official account, an employee of the GB Assembly told Dawn that the account was indeed inaccessible.

Deputy Director (Information) Abbas Ali told Dawn that his location on Twitter was also being shown as Indian-held Kashmir. He explained the account was inaccessible even if he tried to access it while keeping the location off.

PTA says issues limited to few iOS devices

On the other hand, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) said in a statement later today that the matter had been “thoroughly investigated”.

It stated that “no such problem” regarding Twitter blocking access to Pakistan’s official account in GB and changing the region’s location to parts of India was found.

“After detailed on-ground testing, it appears that any sporadic issues encountered are limited to very few iOS devices, affecting a small number of users,” the PTA said, adding that such incidents were not significant and did not reflect a widespread problem.

Indian influence on Twitter

Users in GB said the social media platform has “disrespected the status of Gilgit-Baltistan” and called it an attack on the region’s identity.

Digital rights expert Asad Baig told Dawn that the discrepancy could be down to a number of reasons.

“I feel it could be three things; a glitch in the matrix, improper geo-markings in the (maybe a third-party) geographical/cartographical system that is being used, or an intentional action perhaps on the basis of the invalid Indian claim over GB, as a result of backdoor lobbying, or the fact that Twitter is liable to Indian laws.

“If its a mistake, it should obviously be corrected immediately. If it’s anything other than that, the GOP should take it up with Twitter, and maybe also other appropriate forums,” he said.

India is known to wield “considerable influence” over the social media platform and even coerced it to abide by its local laws in the past.

In September 2022, Twitter’s former security chief told the US Congress that the company knowingly allowed India to add agents to the company roster, potentially giving it access to sensitive data about users.

Earlier in June, Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder, said India regularly issued requests to remove certain posts and accounts and also threatened legal repercussions in cases of non-compliance.

“India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers’ protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government,” said Mr Dorsey in an interview.

Twitter has also sued the Indian government in the past over some orders to block tweets and accounts alleging that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering it to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove several tweets from its platform.

After Twitter delayed compliance with India’s new IT regulations, a special unit of the Delhi Police made surprise visits to two of Twitter’s offices in India in 2021.

At the time, Twitter expressed apprehension, stating it was “concerned by recent events regarding our employees in India and the potential threat to freedom of expression for the people we serve.”

Published in Dawn, July 9th, 2023