The social media giant Twitter, known for its leftist bias, has suspended another non-left account on their platform, citing “violating rules against ban evasion” as the reason. The latest popular non-left account to be suspended is @storiesofBHs, the account of the website Stories of Bengali Hindus. The founder of the website, Dr Sandeep Das, shared the information through his personal Twitter account.
We have received an email from @Twitter stating that we were suspended in view of “ban evasion”.
— Dr. Sandeep Das 🪔 (@dr_dsandeep) December 1, 2021
Point to note that @storiesofBHs has never been suspended in the past, and this one was our first.
We appeal to @TwitterSupport asking for more explanation for this suspension. pic.twitter.com/IenWdk9BxL
Dr Das wrote that they received an email from Twitter stating that we were suspended in view of “ban evasion”. He asked the microblogging site to provide more explanation for the suspension. Interestingly, while Twitter said that it had suspended the account in view of “ban evasion”, it provided no explanation as to which ban had the account exactly evaded.
Das said that this is the first time the account has been suspended, it was never suspended in the part, therefore it is not clear how the account violated norms by evading a ban.
In his subsequent Tweet, Das wrote: “@storiesofBHs had been a place where Bengali Hindus from East Bengal spread across the world could come together and share their stories of intergenerational/transgenerational trauma which were untold and ignored. @Twitter has, through this, put down our voices and stories.”
He also informed that ‘Stories of Hindu Bengalis’ are considering all options as of now, He urged everyone to rally support for them.
Condemning the arbitrary suspension of the Twitter handle by the social media giant, that too without providing adequate reasoning, veteran journalist Kanchan Gupta Tweeted: “This handle @storiesofBHs would tweet factual stories of Bengali Hindus, many of them based on archival material and books. So @Twitter what offence has been committed? Or is this to show that your biases under @paraga remain what they were under @jack ?”
This handle @storiesofBHs would tweet factual stories of Bengali Hindus, many of them based on archival material and books. So @Twitter what offence has been committed? Or is this to show that your biases under @paraga remain what they were under @jack ? https://t.co/Cjx5KU00LY
— Kanchan Gupta 🇮🇳 (@KanchanGupta) December 1, 2021
Stories of Bengali Hindus has been bringing the stories of injustices and suffering experienced by East Bengal’s persecuted Bengali Hindus to the forefront through its social media handle. According to the website’s accounts on other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram, in its last post, it had shared details of an exhibition cum seminar on ‘Bengali Hindu Genocide’ scheduled to be held in Kolkata on December 11 and 12. The event is being held to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1971 Bangladesh Genocide and the 75th anniversary of the Naokhali Genocide, read the brochure shared by ‘Stories of Bengali Hindus’.
This is, however, not the first time, Twitter has singled out a non-left account and suspended it without providing any reasonable explanation for the same. In September this year, the Popular Twitter account ‘Princess Woke Liberal (@workingboxwali)’ was censored and suspended by the micro-blogging site for questioning the promotion of Islamist Rana Ayyub on the Elle Magazine.
Last year, popular non-left account @effucktivehumor was suspended indefinitely for a tweet that condemned the Paris beheading. Following the suspension, it was communicated to the user that his account was suspended for violating Twitter rules on Hateful conduct although it was not pointed out precisely how the tweet condemning a terror attack violated the social media giant’s policy towards hate speech.
The Facebook, Instagram, YouTube accounts of the website are still functioning.
