Twitter, a platform which identifies itself as having left-leaning political ideology, is now being accused by Indian Muslims of having anti-Muslim religious bias. This move comes days after ThePrint journalist Dilip Mondal bullied Twitter into giving him a blue tick after accusing the platform of being casteist.
Journalist and former Member of Parliament, Shahid Siddiqui has accused Twitter of not ‘verifying’ him and giving him a blue tick. Despite mentioning that he does not ‘care’ about such ‘caste system’, he appended ‘#VerifyMuslimActivists’ hashtag.
I am one of the most prominent and senior journalist/editor of Urdu,a very senior political analyst in Media. Former member of Parliament.
Writer, educationist,activist But Twitter never verified me.
However I neither care nor bother about this caste system#VerifyMuslimActivists— shahid siddiqui (@shahid_siddiqui) November 13, 2019
Soon, he was joined by other Muslim Twitter users who despite being ‘fundamentally against pleading for verification blue tick’ but said that the blue tick is needed because of ‘bias of state’.
I’m fundamentally against pleading for verification blue tick. I’m against begging to corporates but I understand the need for #VerifyMuslimActivists .
The bias of state has seeped within a corporate and discrimination of every kind needs to be battled.— बुकरात वकील (انس) (@Vakeel_Sb) November 13, 2019
Low IQ Congress supporters also joined in in demanding blue tick for Muslims because Jay Shah, BCCI Secretary, has one despite ’10-20 followers’.
Listen @TwitterIndia!
It’s not about verifying, It’s a matter of equality. Jai Shah has 10-20 followers & U verified his account. Whyn’t verify the accounts of those who talk about peace.@manishm345 Sir!#VerifyMuslimActivists— BurhaN HussaiN? (@Ahuburhan659) November 13, 2019
Jay Shah is Board of Control for Cricket India Secretary and not just a regular ‘non-Muslim’ and has over 13,000 followers.
Mr @hajirafiqansari is an MLA from Meerut and former Minister of State, but his account also not verified by @TwitterIndia .
Amit Shah’s son can be @verified within minutes but Muslim activists can’t, why @manishm345 ???#VerifyMuslimActivists
— Md Asif Khan آصِف (@imMAK02) November 12, 2019
Here people are forgetting that there are various prominent Muslim leaders and activists whose Twitter handles are verified. Like Congress leader Ahmed Patel and Salman Khurshid. Various Muslim activists have also been verified by Twitter around the world like freelance protestor Shehla Rashid.
Read: Accusing Twitter of being an agent of ‘Brahmanvad’ shows the hollowness of leftist Dalit activism
Prominent political parties like Rashtriya Janta Dal (RJD), which had earlier lent its support to accusing Twitter of casteism also attacked the platform for not ‘verifying’ Muslims.
RJD is against any kind of discrimination on the basis of caste, creed, faith and sex. We believe in equality and liberty. Twitter should #VerifyMuslimActivists and extend #BluetickforSCSTOBC activists and other deserving activists.
— Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) November 12, 2019
Twitter must #VerifyMuslimActivists along #BluetickforSCSTOBC
— Qari Sohaib (@qarisohaibrjd) November 12, 2019
RJD Youth leader who identifies himself as Lalu Prasad Yadav’s ‘soldier’ also joined in for demanding blue tick for Muslim ‘activists’.
Read: After KRK, another Indian decides to take on Twitter legally for suspending his account
The Muslims on Twitter have threatened that till the time Twitter verifies these accounts, they will spam Twitter with the hashtag.
जब तक हमारे मुस्लिम ? @AliSohrab007@AshrafFem@drkafeelkhan@khalidmfp@akramtyagi@shanu_sab
@ArifKIndianभाईयो के एकाउंट्स @verified
नहीं हो जाते हम लिखते रहेंगे
और लिखते रहेंगे इंशाअल्लाह#VerifyMuslimActivists— Hamid Ansari حامد (@HamidAnsari000) November 12, 2019
After being accused of casteism by the Left, Twitter bowed down and gave clarification that the political ideology of their employees does not reflect on the platform which they say is free of bias. At the time of this report, Twitter has not been bullied into giving clarification on allegations of being ‘anti-Muslim’.
