India Has Blocked Pakistan’s Official Government Twitter Account

The official Twitter account of the Pakistan government, in response to a legal demand, has been banned in India. Attempting to access the account will display a message stating, “Account Withheld @GovtofPakistan’s account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.” 

This marks the third time that the account has been restricted in India, with the previous incidents occurring in July and October of 2022.

Twitter takes such action in accordance with its guidelines when presented with a valid legal demand, typically in the form of a court order. As a result, the Twitter feed of the Pakistan government “@GovtofPakistan” is currently unavailable to Indian users.

According to Twitter guidelines, such actions can be taken in response to legal demands, such as court orders. The social media giant stated that if it “receives a valid and properly scoped request from an authorized entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.”

Last year, Twitter in India banned official accounts of Pakistan Embassies in the United Nations, Turkey, Iran, and Egypt. Additionally, in August, India blocked eight YouTube-based news channels, including one based in Pakistan, as well as a Facebook account that was disseminating “fake, anti-India content” online.

According to a statement from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, the emergency powers under Information Technology Rules, 2021, were used to take this action.

The blocked Indian YouTube channels were found to be using fake and sensational thumbnails, images of news anchors, and logos of certain TV news channels to mislead viewers into believing that the news was genuine.

Meanwhile, Pakistan has been removed from the EU’s “High-Risk Third Countries” list due to its inadequate anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing measures. This decision has been welcomed by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who sees it as a positive development for the country’s businesses, which are currently facing financial difficulties. The EU’s delegation in Pakistan has also praised this move as an important step forward for Pakistan.

According to a tweet from the EU, the decision to remove Pakistan from the list is in line with the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) decision last year to remove Pakistan from its list of countries under “increased monitoring”. The FATF is a global watchdog that monitors money laundering and terrorist financing.

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