Twitter on Saturday morning restored the account of author and human rights activist Harsh Mander’s Karwan-e-Mohabbat – a people’s campaign for solidarity that reaches out to survivors of hate crimes and documents those stories. The Twitter account was suspended on Friday.
Mander on Friday wrote on Twitter that he was amazed by the suspension of the account. “We answer rising hate with solidarity and love,” he said in a tweet. “We tell stories of people who live together with love and goodwill, or fall to hate lynching. We’ll continue to speak out, fighting for a country of justice and kindness.”
Twitter in a response to Mander sent an automated response saying “the account was suspended because we found it was in violation of the Twitter rules prohibiting the misuse of Twitter product features”.
Writer Natasha Badhwar, who also is part of the Karwan-e-Mohabbat team, asked Twitter to restore the account. “Attention @Twitter @TwitterSupport: @karwanemohabbat is a journey of love, solidarity and atonement,” she wrote in a tweet. “Does that violate the Twitter Rules?!”.
Earlier on Saturday, Badhwar had told Scroll.in they had received no response from Twitter on why the account was suspended. “It’s completely out of the blue. There has been no communication from Twitter about this.”
Scroll.in has sent an email to Twitter seeking its response on why the account was suspended. This article will be updated if a response is received.
Karwan-e-Mohabbat, or Caravan of love, is a movement that travels across the country, to places affected by lynchings and hate crimes, and documents them. It set out from Nagaon in Assam on 4 September 2017.
Also read: Scroll.in’s fortnight series about their journeys: Karwan Tracks
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