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Over the last two weeks, Twitter has issued warnings to two non-Pakistani users for violating laws of the Islamic Republic.

New Delhi: Social media giant Twitter has been issuing its users warnings for flouting Pakistani laws. Not all of the users are Pakistani though.

In November, Canadian-Saudi activist Ensaf Haidar received an e-mail notification from Twitter for violating Pakistani laws.

Over the last two weeks, Twitter has sent out notifications to its users warning them that their “tweets can violate Pakistani law”.

The two latest additions to the list are Canadian columnist and activist Anthony Furey and Iranian-Australian scholar Imam Mohammad Tawhidi.

Kate Hayes, Twitter’s senior policy communications manager, told ThePrint that there is a “transparent process for any government or authorised legal entity anywhere around the world to submit requests to Twitter — this is not a new process, nor is it that ‘Twitter particularly being cautious’ with regards to Pakistan.”

She said, “The practice of notifying users when we receive a request related to their account is also not new, nor is it unique to Pakistan — it’s something we do for users all around the world, and it’s part of our commitment to transparency and empowerment.”

“We notify users so that they have the opportunity to review the legal request, and the option to take measures to protect their interests,” added Hayes over email.

‘Punishable by death’

In a tweet on 3 December, Tawhidi said Twitter sent him a notice flagging his tweet that asked Australian police to investigate religious extremism being carried out in mosques, after a terrorist knife attack in Melbourne last month.

ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack.

https://twitter.com/Imamofpeace/status/1069639319902658562?s=09

Furey, an op-ed editor in Canada’s Toronto Sun, wrote in the newspaper Saturday describing a similar incident.

In his piece titled The Pakistan government is accusing me of a crime – and Twitter is acting as its messenger, Furey talked of his shock when he received a notice from Twitter’s legal department last week, something he had dismissed as spam at first.

“Unsettling? I’ll say. A powerful global tech giant has just told me the Pakistan government has its eye on me for an offence punishable by death,” Furey wrote in his column.

The email addressed to him claimed that his content was in “in violation of Pakistan law: Section 37 of PECA-2016, Section 295 B and Section 295 C of the Pakistan Penal Code”.

The content in question was a cartoon of Prophet Muhammad that Furey had posted on Twitter a few years ago. The Pakistan Penal Code sections mentioned are concerned with blasphemy laws in Pakistan — Section 295 B deals with the defiling of the Quran and Section 295 C pertains to derogatory content about Prophet Muhammad, the punishment for which also includes death penalty.

“Other countries need to make it clear they don’t support Pakistan for reaching beyond their jurisdiction and trying to intimidate citizens of other countries. There is the serious risk that people in countries outside of Pakistan may start self-censoring themselves,” Furey told ThePrint over email.

He added, “For those of us in Western countries, receiving these messages is something we can even chuckle about because we’re not actually going to face charges unless we visit Pakistan. But it’s a stark reminder that people within Pakistan actually do get arrested and imprisoned for freedom of speech issues.”

Also read: Saudi dissident’s wife tweets against niqab, Twitter flags it as ‘in violation of Pakistan law’

Country laws

Many users have been questioning the social media platform for issuing these notices to users who aren’t citizens of Pakistan.

Earlier, Haidar had received an email from Twitter’s legal team, flagging a tweet of hers against the practice of wearing niqab. The email read, “The correspondence claims that the following content is in violation of Pakistani law.”

– Retweet if you're against niqab. – Retweeter si vous êtes contre le niqab. pic.twitter.com/CXwxWUh9Hb — Ensaf Haidar ⚜️ (@miss9afi) August 20, 2018

Referring to the Haidar case, Twitter’s policy communications manager Kate Hayes had earlier told ThePrint that this is a general policy.

“Many countries have laws that may apply to tweets and/or Twitter account content. In our continuing effort to make our services available to people everywhere, if we receive valid requests from an authorised entity, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time,” said Hayes.

However, the cases of legal communication that have emerged recently pertain to Pakistani laws.

Haidar had told ThePrint, “(Twitter CEO) Jack (Dorsey) tries to silence everyone who tells the truth like Laura Loomer and others, while he acts blind on the Anti-Semitic and the hate speech in the Arab world!”

“In the end @TwitterMENA is ran by some extreme radical staff and Jack know that well,” added Haider.

Also read: Why young Indians aren’t on Twitter

This report has been updated to add a comment from a Twitter official.

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