Ministers Follow Hate Accounts That Made Call to Boycott Muslims a Top Twitter Trend

'On Sunday evening, the hashtag #मुस्लिमो_का_संपूर्ण_बहिष्कार (‘Total Boycott of Muslims’) started trending on Twitter, with a large number of right-wing accounts tweeting it en masse. The individuals using the hashtag advocated a range of discriminatory actions against Muslims. These ranged from boycotting the buying of goods and services to advocating a ban on places of religious teaching... However, till the time of publication, The Wire was not aware of any police department or ministry objecting to the promotion of religious enmity on Twitter and taking action, either against the individual handles or even Twitter, as an intermediary under the Information Technology Act. A recent report found the Indian government’s demands for takedowns from Twitter had propelled the country to fourth on the list of most censorious states. It is possible the police is reluctant to act against the individuals currently promoting this hashtag with the intent of malice against Muslims since many of them are followed by prominent politicians – including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and various cabinet ministers...'