Chowkidars outraged as Twitter suspends Rishi Bagree's account

Micro-blogging site Twitter has allegedly suspended the account of right-wing sympathiser Rishi Bagree, whose followers included Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah. A hashtag #BringBackRishiBagree trended on Twitter with the saffron brigade, having chowkidar prefix on their name, taking to social media in large numbers to condemn the action.

It is not immediately known why Bagree's account has been suspended.

In a Facebook post on Thursday, Bagree, who had over a lakh followers on Twitter, said his handle was suspended for a tweet which dates back to 2016.

“My handle was suspended for a tweet which dates back to 2016 in which a British Bride groom was seen dancing on a popular bollywood song,” he said.

“Completely non-political and harmless tweet but Twitter says that the song which was playing in the background of that video amounts to copyright violation,” he further said.

In another post on Facebook, Bagree claimed he had maintained highest civility while engaging on the social media platform. However, in an article last year, the AltNews claimed that Bagree had been caught multiple times spreading misinformation.

Sharing a photoshopped article of the Times of India with distorted headline, making false claim on nano GPS chips in new currency notes, sharing old image to claim RSS workers have engaged in flood relief in Kerala, sharing false information about author Arundhati Roy and journalist Barkha Dutt are some of the instances that have been chronicled in the article.

In an article earlier this year, the Scroll website also claimed that Bagree's Twitter account was known for sharing fake and unverified images and posts, while fact-checking his January 11 tweet: “Rahul Gandhi met Sam Pitroda led delegation today in the Hilton Banquet hall where they had £1500 Breakfast per head & discussed the Poverty.”

Responding to his suspension on Twitter, writer Advaita Kala tweeted: “Just learnt of this -.Twitter's election time ad hoc suspensions continue. This is a very popular handle with sharp commentary and not abusive.”

Several BJP leaders, including MLA Kapil Mishra, have also taken to Twitter to criticise the ban.