In a setback to Pakistan, the Twitter has blocked access to the official account of the government of Pakistan in the Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) region that was under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. The GB region was part of Jammu and Kashmir and was illegally occupied by Pakistan in 1947.
Twitter has relocated the GB region as part of India and when users turn on the location feature on the app, tweets sent from the GB are marked as originating from Jammu and Kashmir in India.
Pakistan government’s official account has been banned in India since March 2023. In 2022, the account was withheld twice over “legal complaints”.
The development has put the Pakistani authorities in an embarrassing situation as internet users in GB have started posting the issue on their Twitter accounts. The authorities have warned users not to spread “fake news”.
In a bid to downplay the issue, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has come out with a statement claiming that “the matter has been thoroughly investigated and no such problem has been found, as being circulated in the media”.
Araib Ali Baig, a history buff in GB region, not satisfied with PTA’s claim, wrote on his Twitter account; “I’m not surprised by the @PTAofficialpk statement on @GovtofPakistan Twitter handle as my location still shows I’m Tweeting from Jammu and Kashmir which twitter shows as integral part of India”.
A GB-based journalist, Jamil Nagri, wrote on Twitter; “I am in #Gilgit, my location on, it shows me in India, very interesting PTA started to defend Twitter and India, this is incompetency of PTA, shameful”.
Jamil wrote; “blocked access to the government of Pakistan’s official account in #GilgitBaltistan & changed GB’s location to parts of #India.
When users turn on the location feature on the app, tweets sent from the region are marked as originating from India”.
Several other users in GB reported that they are unable to access the Pakistan government’s official Twitter account. When users tried to access the account, an error message is popping up saying “account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand”.
Few others pointed out that the App was showing them in India rather than in GB.
Some other users claimed that they were only getting the option of Jammu and Kashmir while tagging their location.