Aarti Tikoo takes Twitter to Court for restricting her handle
The multimedia platform founder and editor-in-chief, The New Indian, Aarti Tikoo has approached the Delhi High Court against the blocking of her Twitter account over a post in December 2021. Aarti Tikoo had called out “extremists” for sending ‘death threats’ to her brother, Sahil Tikoo, and had sought protection from the Union Home Ministry for Sahil who lives in Srinagar.
Sahil Tikoo, a Spokesperson for J&K, BJP was openly threatened by some jihadis in a ‘Spaces’ session, a feature of Twitter. Aarti Tikoo had tweeted, “My brother @TikooSahil_ who lives in Srinagar is being openly threatened by jihadi terrorists sitting in Kashmir-India, & their handlers in Pakistan, UK & US. Is anyone watching? Are we sitting ducks waiting to be shot dead by Islamists or will you crackdown on them? @HMOIndia.”
After her tweet, Twitter had restrained Aarti Tikoo’s account on December 15, 2021. Further, the tweet was deleted by the microblogging site for ‘violation of rules‘ against ‘hateful conduct.’ Moreover, her account was temporarily blocked from making further posts.
After getting blocked on Twitter, Aarti Tikoo took to micro-blogging site Koo and posted on her Koo account:
In her plea, filed through advocate Mukesh Sharma, Tikoo has argued, “That it is further submitted that a lot of Twitter users including political personalities cutting across party lines expressed sympathy with the Petitioner because her Tweet very clearly did not incite violence or hatred against any community. As a matter of fact, the same was an exhortation to Respondent No.1 (Center Government).”
The plea further said that word Islamist, used in her Tweet, is a political ideology that has to be distinguished from the religion of Islam. “Since the beginning of the insurgency in 1989, countless brave soldiers and security personnel have been martyred in the struggle to preserve India’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. In this view of the matter, it is imperative that the impugned aforementioned decision of the Respondent No.2 is quashed forthwith,” it was contended.
She, therefore, said that Twitter’s action violates her rights under Article 14, 19, and 21 of the Constitution of India and demanded that the decision be quashed.
Commenting on the entire incidence, Aarti Tikoo said, “I have moved to the Delhi High Court with a writ petition, asking the GoI to protect my fundamental right to speech and life. The government is answerable to me. It is not just about Aarti Tikoo versus Twitter, it is about every Indian citizen whose freedom of speech is curtailed by Twitter on one pretext or another. Sometimes it is whimsical, sometimes it is the algorithm, and other times it is Twitter’s own biases and prejudices against victims of Islamist terror.”
The irony is Twitter hasn’t taken any action on the handles who spewed venom against Sahil Tikoo, but in a swift response, took down Aarti’s tweet.
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I think it may be a good idea to mobilise public opinion for 1000s of people to tweet saying, we endorse the Tweet of Aarti and reproduce her tweet.
Let Twitter take action against all. This will snowball into a public debate and Twitter’s fig leaf will be shed.
More power to Aarti.