After objections were raised by the Vice President’s office, the blue tick was reportedly restored within a few hours.
Amid an ongoing tussle between the micro-blogging website and the Indian government, in new provocation, Twitter on Saturday briefly removed the blue tick or “verified” badge from the personal handle of Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu.
However, after objections were raised by the Vice President’s office, the blue tick was reportedly restored within a few hours. In addition, the government sources had also talked about tough action, stressing that: “Twitter wants to test India’s patience”.
A report by news agency ANI said the verified status had been removed from @MVenkaiahNaidu for “inactivity”. “The personal account of Venkaiah Naidu was inactive for six months and the blue badge has gone,” an official from the Vice President’s office was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
The last tweet from this particular acount was made on on July 23, 2020.
Government sources, calling it an outrageous act against the “Number 2” constitutional head of the country, pointed out that the accounts of former Union Ministers Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj had stayed verified long after their death in 2019.
“The Vice President is above politics. It is a constitutional post. Can Twitter do the same with American leaders in constitutional posts,” sources in the IT Ministry said.
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