By Chaitanya Kohli
Many Pakistani social media accounts on Instagram and YouTube – which had briefly become accessible in India – were blocked again on July 3, as per a Hindustan Times report. The Government cited a ‘technical error’ for the earlier ‘unblocking’ of these accounts.
The re-blocked accounts include the Instagram profiles of Saba Qamar, Mawra Hocane, Ahad Raza Mir, Hania Amir, Yumna Zaidi, and Danish Taimoor, among others.
Furthermore, YouTube blocked the channels of former Pakistani cricketers Shahid Afridi and Shoaib Akhtar in India – this development came after an earlier unblocking. However, Pakistani channel Geo News is still accessible within the country.
Reacting to the unblocking of Pakistani accounts, Sushant Sareen – a Senior Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) – tweeted: “Please ask these ‘govt sources’ that if tomorrow Hafiz Saeed or Lashkar-e-Taiba, Al Qaeda and Jaish Mohammad don’t issue any anti-India statement for a few weeks, will these groups be unbanned to ‘incentivise and reward’ them for good behaviour?”
Sareen also questioned Information & Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw about who is actually in charge within the government set-up when it comes to such decisions. He tweeted: “Has the GOI policy changed @AshwiniVaishnaw or is your ministry a super government which can decide on its own that it will open the floodgates to Pakistani propaganda?”
Crackdown On Pakistan-Related Content Since Pahalgam Terror Attack
The process of blocking Pakistan-related content on the internet in India began in the wake of the Pahalgam terrorist attack on April 22 in Jammu & Kashmir. The Central Government initially blocked 16 YouTube channels linked to Pakistan and followed it up by blocking the official account of the Pakistan Government.
Furthermore, a day after the Indian Armed Forces began Operation Sindoor, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting (MIB) asked all over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital intermediaries to discontinue streaming Pakistani-origin content.
Elsewhere, Union Minister of Consumer Affairs Pralhad Joshi revealed on May 14 that the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) had served notices to Amazon and Flipkart, among other e-commerce platforms, over the sale of Pakistani flags and merchandise in India.