"Twitter has told us that they shall arbitrarily control who gets to speak here & who gets banned, it is time we explore other platforms,” IAS officer Kannan Gopinathan tweeted on Wednesday morning, announcing a 24-hour boycott of the social media platform.
Taking objection to Twitter’s policy on suspensions and verifications of accounts, several other users on Twitter followed suit. The users also announced that they will switch to alternative social media platforms such as Social, Telegram and Mastodon.
As @twitter & @TwitterIndia has told us that they shall arbitrarily control who gets to speak here & who gets banned, it is time we explore other platforms.
— Kannan Gopinathan (@naukarshah) November 5, 2019
I have made my account on mastodon naukarshah@mstdn.social. Let us remain connected over different platforms. https://t.co/TsF6jnyfCZ
Some even opened an account at Mastodon.
I am on at prasanna_s@mstdn.social.
— Prasanna S (@prasanna_s) November 5, 2019
If @Twitter does not reinstate @sanjayuvacha before 12 noon on 6th Nov, 2019, please join me in a 24-hour Twitter Boycott in solidarity with #SanjayHegde starting at that time.
During the Boycott period, we will not access twitter. At all. https://t.co/HPDUvO6XbJ
I'm in.
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) November 6, 2019
If @Twitter does not reinstate @sanjayuvacha before 12 noon on 6th Nov, 2019, I'm joining @prasanna_s in a 24-hour Twitter Boycott in solidarity with #SanjayHegde starting at that time.
During the Boycott period, we will not access twitter. At all. https://t.co/jHlVYL0R61
I'm in too. Please, @TwitterIndia @Twitter @TwitterSupport, restore @sanjayuvacha, and work towards restoring your credibility?
— Mitali Saran (@mitalisaran) November 6, 2019
Meanwhile, I'm also set up as @MitaliSaran on Mastodon. https://t.co/ZW9cEcldKA
I am saikatd@mstdn.social
— Saikat Datta (@saikatd) November 5, 2019
If @Twitter and @TwitterIndia isn't reasonable, look for other media platforms. Fully support the initiative taken by @naukarshah and @prasanna_s https://t.co/9xLahaWjn0
It began when Twitter refused to reinstate the Twitter account of Supreme Court lawyer Sanjay Hegde. Hegde’s account (@sanjayuvacha) was suspended twice in the past one week, once for his cover photo — which was the 1936 picture of August Landmesser refusing to do the Nazi salute — and the second time for a 2017 tweet, where he had quote tweeted (retweet with comment) a tweet by Kavitha Krishnan, which had a poem by Gorakh Pandey.
Appallingly @Twitter @TwitterIndia has displayed its cussed idiocy & bias by blocking @sanjayuvacha AGAIN! This time for quoting my tweet from 2017 which had Gorakh Pandey's poem against the first execution by hanging in independent India - of 2 peasant revolutionaries. pic.twitter.com/dUKb31Ur6r
— Kavita Krishnan (@kavita_krishnan) October 28, 2019
According to ThePrint, Hegde appealed against the suspension but his appeal was dismissed, an email from Twitter said. Hegde told the website that deliberate targeting and mass reporting of his account by ‘certain forces’ had led to the suspension of his account.
Hegde often would question the union government on many issues on Twitter. He had nearly 98,000 followers on Twitter before the account was suspended.
Speaking to LiveLaw, Sanjay Hegde had stated that he will not delete his tweets and will be moving court against Twitter.
"I am left with no option but to migrate to an alternate platform like Mastodon and to take Twitter and others to court on this. I am examining all options, including courts outside India,” he told LiveLaw.
Many people have now joined Mastodon, which is a free and open-source self-hosted social networking service. Mastodon also says that it comes with “effective anti-abuse tools” and servers with strict codes of conduct.