Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan (TLP) chief Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Twitter account has been suspended by the social media platform, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.
Upon visiting the handle @KhadimRizviReal, a notification ‘Account suspended’ appears. The error notification states the account has been suspended ‘for violating the Twitter rules’.
This development comes less than 12 hours after Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari, via Twitter, shared that Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had been “asked to do this [request for suspension of Rizvi’s account] by the relevant minister on Friday”, expressing shocked that “it hasn’t happened”. Later, Mazari tweeted that the information minister had informed her that Twitter had refused the request. The government had reportedly requested Twitter to suspend Rizvi’s Twitter handle on account of threatening the state and its institutions, after several activists and citizens posted on Twitter calling on users to report Rizvi’s account.
Published in Daily Times, November 5th 2018.
