Fake Indian PM accounts blocked

ISLAMABAD

A man works on his laptop computer during a computer class at an educational complex in Sarah. AP photo

Twitter has agreed to remove six fake accounts which purport to be Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s following a request from the Indian government, the premier’s spokesman said yesterday.

The government asked the micro-blogging website to remove the accounts on the grounds that they misrepresented the prime minister and risked increasing ethnic or religious tension. “Officials at Twitter have told us they are reviewing our request to remove the six fake PM accounts and they intend to cooperate,” Pankaj Pachauri, Singh’s spokesman told Agence France-Presse. The request to block the six fake accounts is part of an Internet crackdown by the government following a mass exodus of migrants from the country’s northeast who fled southern cities such as Bangalore.

Tens of thousands of people fled back to the remote northeast last week after Internet posts, phone text messages and doctored video clips messages spread rumors that they would be attacked by Muslims.