Twitter allows death threat by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan to remain on its platform despite numerous calls to remove it: Details

AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan called for the beheading of Yati Narsinghanand Saraswati in a tweet on Saturday. Despite the passage of ten hours since the tweet was made and multiple citizens highlighting the matter, Twitter is yet to remove the death threat from its platform.

Amanatullah Khan said, “This insult to our prophet is not tolerable to us at all. The tongue and head of this hateful insect should be cut off as punishment. However, Indian laws do not permit this.” The tweet has received over 4000 retweets and 3500 quoted tweets.

Twitter has boasted a lot regarding its stern stance against incitement to violence on its platform. But on this occasion, they appear unwilling to remove a death threat by an elected representative in India. It calls into question the platform’s own resolve towards combating incitement to violence online.

The tweet by Amanatullah Khan was pointed out to Twitter by multiple accounts with huge followers on the platform. Therefore, they cannot say that it was not brought to their attention or that it escaped their notice. Twitter has still not removed the death threat.

https://twitter.com/RadharamnDas/status/1378305168589004801?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/MajorPoonia/status/1378300846740475904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/Nitin_Rivaldo/status/1378266420052598784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/saurabhsingh109/status/1378251498044289024?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Multiple people on the platform have uploaded screenshots confirming that they have reported the death threat tweet. However, at the time of writing this report, the tweet was still available on platform.

Twitter has cited its no-tolerance policy towards incitement to violence when it suspended Donald Trump from the platform despite the fact that nowhere did Trump explicitly call for violence. With regards to India, however, Twitter has adopted a hypocritical approach as was evident during the ‘farmer protests’ when it refused to take down tweets that peddled fake news and endangered the law and order situation in India.