Twitter warns Pakistan journalist Taha Siddiqui, activist Gul Bukhari for objectionable content

Social networking site Twitter has warned two Pakistani rights activists against posting objectionable content, Reuters reported on Monday.

Taha Siddiqui, a correspondent for France24 television network and founder of SAFE Newsrooms, said Twitter was “trying to silence” him. He claimed that Twitter, in emails sent to him, said it had received complaints that his account was in “violation of Pakistani law” and that further action could be taken. But it did not specify what the action would be, he said.

“Pakistani authorities...are pressuring Twitter to take ‘legal’ steps against me,” Siddiqui told Reuters. “Twitter should stop becoming a facilitator of repressive regimes.” Siddiqui, who left Pakistan after a failed abduction attempt, now lives in France. He said he believed the complaint to Twitter came from Pakistan.

Activist Gul Bukhari received two warnings from the microblogging service. One of the email warnings from Twitter cited a tweet that criticised the government for lack of action against a cleric. Bukhari was abducted from a military cantonment in Lahore and freed a few hours later in June. She is a critic of the Pakistani Army and its alleged role in the governance.

The warnings come a week after cleric Khadim Hussain Rizvi’s Twitter account was blocked after he threatened the Supreme Court judges who acquitted a Christian woman of blasphemy and urged their cooks and servants to kill them.

Bukhari said Rizvi’s speeches violated the law because he incited violence against state officials. “In my tweet I am asking government to take action against him. In which world is that illegal?” she wrote in a reply to Twitter.

“Warnings sent out by Twitter are an example of how online spaces are being regulated and are shrinking for internet users voicing their opinions,” said Pakistani lawyer and internet activist Nighat Dad.