india

Updated: Jun 08, 2019 00:08 IST

The Indian Army got a bit of a shock on Friday morning when it found one of its key social media handles locked out. The handle @ChinarcorpsIA got the same treatment for a few hours that’s usually meted out to those who either abuse, spam or spread trouble on Twitter.

Although everything was sorted out within a few hours, it did lead to a lot of heartburn and a minor social media hyperventilating.

The account belongs to the army’s operationally critical Srinagar-based 15 Corps headquarters. This deals with operations in the Valley and also along the volatile Line of Control with Pakistan.

With a 40,000 plus following, it would usually tweet out information relating to operations by security forces and outreach programmes for the local population. On Friday morning, when the social media team woke up, it was surprised to see the account locked up.

The word was sent to the headquarters which immediately got into action.

As they dialled Twitter executives, the microblogging site was trying to figure out why an army handle was blocked.

Just a couple of hours after the first call was made to Twitter, the account was back up, two officials said on the condition of anonymity. This time the account was back with a blue tick and more than 41,700 followers.

“#ChinarCorps Twitter handle is fully functional & verified now. Thank you all for the constant support, encouragement & suggestions,” the 15 Corps tweeted soon after its account was active again.

The account’s last tweet before the suspension was at 12.11 am on Friday.

On its website, Twitter states that accounts that violate its rules may be suspended in order to maintain a “safe environment” for users.

“Twitter quickly restored the account after we brought the matter to their notice,” said one of the officials cited above.

Sources said the army account may have been caught in a “spam filter”. The sources added that more than 1.8 million accounts were suspended globally.