The accounts were all linked to continuing farmers’ protests against a series of agricultural reform laws.They included farmers’ leaders, activists and a news magazine.

The protests are now in their third month, with many farmers camped on the outskirts of the capital, Delhi.

The official handle of @thecaravanindia is withheld in India: pic.twitter.com/2t4FV5IgM0

— Vinod K. Jose (@vinodjose) February 1, 2021

Reports say government officials highlighted in their submission to Twitter about 250 accounts and tweets which they said constituted a threat to public security.

Two popular accounts associated with the protest, Kisan Ekta Morcha and Tractor2Twitr, were withheld.

Twitter also blocked the accounts of Caravan, a news magazine, activist Hansraj Meena, actor Sushant Singh and other lawmakers.

#TwitterCensorship was at the top of trends on the micro-blogging platform on Monday amid outrage over the accounts’ suspension as many criticised the platform for blocking key protesting voices.

Twitter reportedly blocked around 100 twitter accounts and around 150 tweets for using a controversial hashtag, and making “fake, intimidatory and provocative tweets on January 30,” Indian Express reported.

The timeline of these accounts were blanked out and a message read “Your account has been withheld in India in response to a legal demand.” It is unclear what the legal demand mentions.

A Twitter statement said, “If we receive a valid and properly scoped request from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time.”

A leader of farmer collective Kisan Ekta Morcha told reporters that the government had blocked many of the accounts associated with their team.

“It is very surprising. The government is trying to suppress the voice of farmers and supporters of farmers.”

On Monday evening, most accounts appeared to have been restored.

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“I believe this was the right decision for Twitter,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets. “We faced an extraordinary and untenable circumstance, forcing us to focus all of our actions on public safety. Offline harm as a result of online speech is demonstrably real, and what drives our policy and enforcement above all.”

That said, having to ban an account has real and significant ramifications. While there are clear and obvious exceptions, I feel a ban is a failure of ours ultimately to promote healthy conversation. And a time for us to reflect on our operations and the environment around us.

— jack (@jack) January 14, 2021

On January 8, Twitter suspended Trump’s account permanently after thousands of his supporters stormed the US Capitol in Washington DC, and clashed with the police. The microblogging website had first temporarily suspended Donald Trump’s account later imposed the permanent ban, citing, “risk of further incitement of violence”. Apart from Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have also blocked Trump’s accounts for policy violations.

In his tweets, Dorsey said he took no pride in the ban. “ After a clear warning we’d take this action, we made a decision with the best information we had based on threats to physical safety both on and off Twitter,” he wrote.

The Twitter CEO acknowledged that the ban could have “significant ramifications”. Dorsey also said that he felt the decision to suspend the account was a failure on the company’s part to promote a healthy conversation.

“Having to take these actions to fragment the public conversation,” he said. “They divide us. They limit the potential for clarification, redemption, and learning. And sets a precedent I feel is dangerous: the power an individual or corporation has over a part of the global public conversation.”

Dorsey said that internet companies, including Twitter, should look at inconsistencies in their policy and how their service can incentivise distraction and harm. “Yes, we need more transparency in our moderation operations,” he said. ‘All this can’t erode a free and open global internet.”

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According to #ThisHappened2020 Twitter report, BTS continued to rule #KpopTwitter and emerged as artiste with most Retweeted Tweets in music in India this year. Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez were other global artistes who led music conversations in the country.

Among Indians, Himanshi Khurana, Thaman S and Armaan Malik topped conversation charts this year on the service. Himanshi has emerged as the most mentioned Indian music artiste of 2020 on Twitter.

BTS was also the most mentioned K-pop artiste of the year in India, followed by Exo and Black Pink.

Justin Bieber is the most mentioned global music artiste of 2020 in India, followed by Taylor Swift and Gomez.

The results are based on the total number of retweets /likes /quote tweets by Twitter accounts in India between January 1 and November 15 this year.

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Tooter, with a conch shell(shank) icon, is an Indian alternative to Twitter that became popular amid call for going ‘vocal for local’ in the country. Modelled in the likes of Twitter, the site also has a white and blue coloured interface and is inspired by the US-based platform Parler.

This ‘Made in India’ social media site went viral after it identified itself as a swadeshi social network.

In fact the website became active around June or July. But it caught netizens’attention only recently and ever since then desi Twitter users have left no stone unturned to create hilarious memes and jokes about it.

#Tooter
*Indian version of Twitter exist*

Expectation Reality : pic.twitter.com/6U35Euf2Ui

— अभिमन्यु (@abhiishutup) November 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/sircazm/status/1331392267043500032

Twitter #Tooter pic.twitter.com/fgv3kIhLIC

— Patriotic Indian (@SwadeshiINC) November 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/AbdulSRKian01/status/1331209543167066112

If you wonder who will be using this identical twin of Twitter, one won’t be surprised as the site has some prominent personalities as its users like PM Narendara Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Smriti Irani, actor Abhishek Bachchan, Sadhguru and cricketer Virat Kohli.

The site claims that it aims to promote free speech and not punish users for “exercising their god-given right to speak freely.”

The platform is a cross between Facebook and Twitter. It follows the same mechanism as Twitter, as the user has to create an account on Tootter with a username and an email address. After signing up, users can follow other accounts , read through a feed and customise groups and lists. Like posts on Twitter are called tweets, it is Toots on Tooter. The app is available only for Android users.

The post This identical twin of Twitter sparks meme fest online appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Other than that, the most talked about feature that Twitter came up with was the Fleets. The feature was initially tested in India and Brazil and now it has been made available to all users across the globe.

So here is a look at all the features that were launched on Twitter.

Fleets

The Fleets appear on the top of a Twitter account, right below the icon. To view Fleets posted by the people you follow, just tap on their profile pictures. Fleets are not permanent on the site like tweets. They cannot be shared, liked or get comments. However, people can react to your tweets with Direct Messages if you follow the person and are followed by him.

Warning before liking a labelled tweet

After a huge backlash against Twitter’s callous approach in controlling hate speech and misinformation, Twitter announced recently that it will warn users before they like a tweet that has been labelled for misinformation. Announcing the new feature, Twitter wrote, “Giving context on why a labeled Tweet is misleading under our election, COVID-19, and synthetic and manipulated media rules is vital. These prompts helped decrease Quote Tweets of misleading information by 29% so we’re expanding them to show when you tap to like a labelled Tweet.” Twitter aims to reduce the likes and retweets of a tweet carrying misleading information.

Audio Tweets

Unfortunately this feature is not available for Android users. Twitter has rolled out this feature particularly for iOS users. In this new feature users can share voice tweets.

Twitter Topics

Twitter unveiled a new feature called Topics for Indian users a few days ago. The feature was launched to make it easier for Indian users to interact, find, follow the things they love. Twitter in its blog had stated that the new feature allows people to get more tweets, posts from the topic of their interest in their feed. Topics also allow users to connect with followers with similar interests and have discussions about their favorite topics. This way they can also expand the reach of their profile and get more visible. The Topics are available in Hindi and English language both.

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The tools that came into questions were Tasks and Centra. They are used to coordinate censorship wit Twitter and Google and monitor Facebook user activity across the internet, respectively.

Republican Senator Josh Hawley on Twitter wrote, “”Zuckerberg admits @Facebook DOES have ‘tools’ to track its users across the internet, across platforms, across accounts – all without user knowledge. I ask how many times this tool has been used domestically against Americans. Zuck won’t say.” He then attached a screenshot of the internal tool.

Rush gets it: Zuckerberg admitted under oath today that Facebook DOES have the ability to coordinate censorship with @Twitter and @Google, and a FB whistleblower has explained how they do it https://t.co/p3qSK2NtKB

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 17, 2020

Zuckerberg, however, did not confirm “whether Facebook ever uses Centra to track and monitor American citizens.” Hawley further noted, “Mark Zuckerberg under oath to me today: I don’t know, I can’t recall, I don’t remember, I’ll follow up later, let me get back to you.”

According to the whistleblower that Hawley mentioned, the tool Centra is used to track user behaviour across the internet without their knowledge. It tracks different profiles that a user visits, their message recipients, their linked accounts, the pages they visit around the web that have Facebook buttons.

Senator Hawley also spoke about internal platform tasks that Facebook uses for co-ordinated content moderation with other companies. However Zuckerberg denied the claim.

Zuckerberg said that there were coordination and sharing signals on security-related topics about terrorism, images of child exploitation and foreign election inference.

Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were testified about their platforms, misinformation and the 2020 election before the members of the Senate Judiciary committee on November 17.

The post Mark Zuckerberg admits using a secret tool on Facebook appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Mudge confirmed the news by tweeting, “I’m very excited to be joining the executive team at Twitter!”

Mudge has previously worked with organisation such as L0pht, Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency ( DARPA), cDc Communications among others.

As the Twitter head of security, Mudge will be responsible to tackle everything from engineering missteps to misinformation. According to reports, Mudge will report directly to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.

The micro-blogging website had faced quite a few security challenges in the past. The recent one among them has been the bitcoin scam. Some high profile Twitter accounts including Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk were hacked a few months ago in July 2020.

A year ago, the US government also accused two men of spying for Saudi Arabia when they worked at Twitter. There was an allegation that Twitter employees passed along private information about the the kingdom’s critics.

Twitter slammed by users for frequent security breaches. Since then company has been taking measures to protect the data of its users.

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“If you’re having trouble watching videos on YouTube right now, you’re not alone our team is aware of the issue and working on a fix. We’ll follow up here with any updates,” the YouTube team posted on Twitter.

Several users from across the globe thronged the social media sites to complain about the issues they were facing with YouTube. Users reported that whenever they tried to play a video, it displayed a message “An error occurred. Please try again later.” Soon after the complaints, #YouTubedown started trending on Twitter.

You Tube was quick to fix the glitch and restore the services.

Soon after YouTube restored the services, the team tweeted saying,” …And we’re back we’re so sorry for the interruption. This is fixed across all devices & YouTube services, thanks for being patient with us.” The company is yet to share the cause of the outage.

However, this is not the first time YouTube has faced a global outage. Earlier in October, Gmail and other services by Google were not functional for hours leaving people stranded in the middle of their work.

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In a trending clip, Barack Obama left many stunned after he walked into a basketball court and scored an effortless basked from quite a distance. After scoring the shot, he yells, “That’s what I do.” He shared the clip with the caption, “Shoot your shot (sic).”
The video was shared by the former president on Twitter.

Shoot your shot. https://t.co/XdZz4dh82T pic.twitter.com/elpBmzu6hV

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) October 31, 2020

After he scored the basket, people present in the gym can be heard hooting and praising the former president. Then Biden walks into the frame and praises Obama saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa. All net.” After which Obama, once again, jokingly says, “You don’t understand, that’s what I do.”

The netizen went crazy on social media and gave apt reaction to Obama’s skills. The video has garnered over 10 million views and thousands of likes.

The coolest of all time.
Please just come back and run the world, already!!! https://t.co/yMNhocVukb

— Shruti Seth (@SethShruti) November 1, 2020

Can we bring this guy back? https://t.co/YtmYq4UTVe

— Raemond99 (@raemond99) November 1, 2020

The video was initially shared by the Biden campaign’s travelling digital director Olivia Raisner.

Obama had played basketball during his school days and would often play basketball during rise to political prominence and kept it up during his time in White House.

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Both the mother and the child are healthy and the flight landed at the Bengaluru airport at 7:40 PM, a statement from IndiGo confirmed.

“We confirm that a baby boy was delivered prematurely on flight 6E 122 from Delhi to Bangalore. There are no further details available,” read the statement.

All the flight operations were normal during the process of delivery.

“We just got information that a baby boy was born in our flight en route 6E 122 Delhi – BLR. Flight landing at 19:40. All operations normal. Mother and child healthy. Congratulations to all. Kudos to your training Team First Aid,” added the statement.

A baby boy was born on board Indigo flight from Delhi to Bangalore today. In all likely baby is getting life long free @IndiGo6E free ticket. Great work by Indigo crew today. Kudos to the team @IndiaToday pic.twitter.com/mxn16dgigf

— Nagarjun Dwarakanath (@nagarjund) October 7, 2020

A baby boy was born in an IndiGo Delhi- Bangalore flight

Both mother & child are doing fine #aviation pic.twitter.com/9hlCh0f9zy

— Arindam Majumder (@ari_maj) October 7, 2020

Reports also said that IndiGo may offer free tickets to the baby for life.

Several photos and videos from the IndiGo flight showing the crew and passengers applauding the woman and her baby are now doing the rounds on social media.

In one such video, IndiGo ground staff and other crew members can be seen standing on the porch and applauding as others assist the woman and her newborn baby in deplaning. Photos and videos of the woman and her baby were clicked along with the crew and pilot who helped her in the process.

As the woman got off the plane, IndiGo officials welcomed the baby and her mother to Bengaluru in a mini celebration on the tarmac itself with posters.

The post Woman delivers baby aboard Indigo flight appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

One such ad published on behalf of a man from West Bengal’s Kamarpukur has gone viral on social media. What is so special about it? Well it’s because this man is looking for a bride who is “not addicted to social media”.

Twitter user Nitin Sangwan, IAS, shared a newspaper snippet of the advert and captioned it on Twitter, saying, “Prospective brides/grooms, please pay attention. Match making criteria are changing.” The tweet got 1000 likes and several retweets.

Destined to be a chronic bachelor.😂

— Vijay Krishnan (@vk_appu) October 5, 2020

The requirements of the groom as mentioned in the snippet are as follows, “Chatterjee 37/5’7” yoga practitioner, handsome, fair, non-addicted, advocate in high court and researcher. Lawyer family having house car, parents are present. Village house in Kamarpukur, with no demand, groom seeks fair, beautiful, tall, slim bride. Bride must not be addicted to social media.”

Majority of netizens were amused by this demand since it is slightly difficult in present times to find a bride with no social media connections, especially when internet rules the roost.

Needless to say some did not fail to point out the usage of fair and slim in the criteria. They wanted a change in the mindset of the Indians where fair skin is still considered more attractive than dark skin.

Chances the man has seen Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’ and got scared. But it is safe to say the matrimonial  ad provided some kind of entertainment to the netizens.

The post Matrimonial ad seeking a bride ‘not addicted to social media’ goes viral appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

A Spanish winery was flooded with a tsunami of more than 13,000 gallons of red wine. Footage posted to Twitter showed wine gushing out of a massive tank at the Bodegas Vitivinos winery in Villamalea, a town in Spain.

Over 50,000 litres of red wine was flowing on the road when the container got damaged and spilled out all its capacity. Soon the booze had seemingly covered the entire premises as it reached winery’s tractors and nearby field.

SUCESOS | Reventón de un depósito de vino de unos 50.000 litros en Bodegas VITIVINOS, de Villamalea pic.twitter.com/lU5pIzZAjU

— Radio Albacete (@RadioAlbacete) September 25, 2020

The footage of the exploding and spillage of red wine out of the metal tank, leaving all the red wine flooding on the road had broken the heart of many wine lovers.

The wine spill footage has since gone viral on Twitter and has received more than nine million views. It has also garnered over 12,000 in retweets , more than 50,000 likes. The video post has also garnered a staggering 29,000 comments on the micro-blogging site with many users comparing the spill to the haunting scene of blood flowing from the elevator doors in Stanley Kubrick’s 1980’s thriller The Shining.

Kubrick did it better pic.twitter.com/4fkrzWYOne

— HardAttack (@attack_hard) September 26, 2020

One user compared it to ‘many days and nights of happiness that will not be possible,’ due to the spill.

“I see it and it hurts,” posted another user.

Another termed it as an ‘unfortunate’ event and added, “What more surprises will 2020 have for us?”

More details of what exactly caused the damage are unknown , but the tank meant to store the drink exploded , resulted in the massive spillage. Workers at the winery could not do much to stop the waste.

Spain is the third-largest producer of wine in the world after Italy and France . With over 2.9 million acres of plantation, the country is also the most widely planted wine-producing nation.

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Microblogging site Twitter announced on Thursday that as the Twitterati wished they can, in fact, have the edit button under one condition that in return the entire world will put on a mask. “You can have an edit button when everyone wears a mask,” Twitter announced.

The platform reiterated its point by adding “Everyone means EVERYONE,” in a separate tweet.

Twitter has long refused to do so, despite repeated requests from users to add edit feature.

Most Twitter users responded to the teasing announcement with different reactions. Some intentionally-misspelled tweets to underline the pressing need for an edit button, while some urged others to wear a mask.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said earlier this year that the company would “probably never” add the edit feature as it may lead to users spreading misinformation in the platform.

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No matter how old your social media tweets may be, the internet never forgets it. It will come to haunt you after many years. The trend of picking up older comments of celebrities and political leaders is nothing new. Now, Shashi Tharoor versus Anupam Kher tweet war is not what we thought we would see.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Sunday ruffled some feathers on microblogging site Twitter when he retweeted an 8-year-old tweet of Anupam Kher, a veteran actor. “A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government,” Kher had quoted American author Edward Abbey in a tweet dated 2012.

Tharoor, retweeting Kher’s tweet on Sunday, said he was in full agreement wrote, “Thanks @AnupamPKher. Agree with you totally here. Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it (~Mark Twain).”

Thanks @AnupamPKher. Agree with you totally here. “Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.” (~Mark Twain) https://t.co/WsSAYvFDSO

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 28, 2020

This triggered a war of words between the two and Kher fired shots at Tharoor’s quip by tweeting in Hindi: “You searched for my 2012 tweet, commented on it. This is a sign of joblessness and one that of a weak mind. This proves you have stooped low. My tweet is still relevant for the corrupt. You know it.”

प्रिय @ShashiTharoor! आपने मेरे 2012 के ट्वीट को ढूंढकर निकाला, आज उस पर टिप्पणी की। ये न केवल आपकी बेरोज़गारी और दिमाग़ी कंगाली का प्रमाण है।बल्कि आप इंसानी तौर पर कितना गिर चुके हैं इसका भी सबूत है।मेरा ये ट्वीट जिन लोगों के लिए था वह आज भी भ्रष्टाचार का प्रतीक हैं।You Know It. pic.twitter.com/IUaD9vVPwM

— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) June 28, 2020

Tharoor, mincing no words, got back at Kher by adding: “What would you say about a government that only quotes 1962,1975& 1984? This is also a sign of joblessness and one that of a weak mind. My tweet is for those people who are showing incompetence at the Indian border.”

. Dear @anupamPKher: So my quoting your 2012 tweet is stooping low; what would you say about a Govt that only quotes 1962,1975& 1984? यह भी बेरोज़गारी और दिमाग़ी कंगाली का अंतिम प्रमाण है? मेरा ये ट्वीट जिन लोगों के लिए हैं वह आज भी अपनी नाकामयाबी दिखा रहे हैं भारत के सीमे में.

— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) June 28, 2020

The two, who had been involved in Twitter brawls over the years, were at online war back in 2016 when Kher he was scared to openly say he was a Hindu. One tweet led to another and the exchange turned ugly.

Come on Shashi. Never thought you will misinterpret my statement like trolls do. And behave like a Congi Chamcha. https://t.co/SOD44ZPYvM

— Anupam Kher (@AnupamPKher) January 30, 2016

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