Recently, the clamour to fight the alleged ideological bias of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have grown louder, especially, from the right-leaning political spectrum. Just a few days ago, the Facebook page of right-leaning portal Rightlog.in was unpublished and the decision was subsequently reversed by Facebook. Twitter CEO had also “fully admitted” that Twitter employees have a ‘left-leaning bias’.
Now, a Twitter user who posts hilarious spoofs especially of Rahul Gandhi has been suspended by Twitter and people are beginning to wonder if his suspension was also owing to his political ideology.
A Twitter user who goes by the handle @Spoof_Junkie has been suspended by Twitter for inexplicable reasons. His earlier avatar as Deewan was also suspended by Twitter earlier. In his earlier avatar as well, Spoof_Junkie would post hilarious spoofs of Rahul Gandhi and people had hoped that he wouldn’t get censored for them. Their fears were realised after Dewan was permanently suspended by Twitter.
Now, when his current avatar @Spook_Junkie has also been suspended, many right-leaning Twitter users saw red.
Ankur Singh questioned Twitter about their selectivity. He pointed towards Twitter’s hypocrisy is tolerating bigots like @AmbedkarCaravan, a handle that regularly spews anti-Hindu hatred and Abhisar Sharma, a journalist who regularly furthers fake news on Twitter but would suspend a harmless spoof handle like @Spoof_Junkie “for making funny videos against Congress”. Ankur alleged that Twitter was suspending people who spoke against Congress.
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1057097502724407296?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/iAnkurSingh/status/1057134514907045888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Many others also questioned Twitter and demanded that his handle be restored. BJP spokesperson Tajinder Bagga said that his suspension was a murder of freedom of speech.
https://twitter.com/TajinderBagga/status/1056990555559710720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Many others too displayed their outrage.
https://twitter.com/Shut_NoShut/status/1057107567015575553?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/rajsan2017/status/1057102046103359488?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/Samir__Ag/status/1057098795123687426?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
There have been several cases where accounts have been restored after being suspended by Twitter. While the reason for Spoof_Junkie’s suspension is not known as of now, one can only wonder if Twitter would pay attention to the demands for his handle to be restored.