Twitter has been accused of censoring prominent Indian journalist Salil Tripathi by suspending his account, after tweets from him on issues such as India’s shrinking democratic space and demolition of the Babri mosque.
The suspension, which went through on Sunday without any prior warning, drew the ire of writers including Salman Rushdie and Amitav Ghosh.
Following the suspension, a rightwing Hindu nationalist group called Deshi Army, known for targeting critics of the government online, claimed victory, reports The Guardian.
Tripathi, who was born in Mumbai but lives in New York, is a writer for various publications and a contributing editor for the Indian publications Mint and the Caravan. He is also chair of PEN International’s Writers in Prison Committee.
The writer is known to criticize Hindu nationalism and has written a book about its implications for freedom of expression in India.
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Sunday was the anniversary of the demolition of the Babri mosque, a Muslim mosque that was torn to the ground by a Hindu nationalist mob in 1992.
Tripathi posted a video on Twitter of him reading his own poem which addressed the demolition, Indian independence and the 2002 religious riots in Gujarat, where over 1000 people, mainly Muslims, were killed.
His account was suspended shortly afterwards. A statement from Twitter said Tripathi’s account “has been temporarily suspended for publishing a list that violates our abusive behaviour policy.”
“Twitter’s decision-making has been opaque and arbitrary. Twitter is a private space which creates the illusion of being a public space, which it clearly is not, and takes decisions on free speech and human rights that it does not have the mandate, expertise, or capacity for,” said Tripathi, commenting on the suspension.
Salil Tripathi is also a celebrated historian of the 1971 Liberation War. He has written a book, titled “The Colonel Who Would Not Repent,” that reflects on the 1971 war and its unsettling legacy.