China is targetting the social media handles of the officials of the Tibetan government-in-exile and human rights activists in a bid to silence the voice raised against the Chinese occupation of Tibet, a media report said.
In January this year, the official Twitter handle of Tenzin Lekshay, the spokesperson and additional secretary, Department of Information and International Relations for the Central Tibetan Administration [CTA] mysteriously disappeared and remains suspended to this day, Tibet Rights Collective said. “Despite repeatedly appealing to @TwitterSupport for months, @Twitter is silent and could not resolve to unsuspend my Twitter account @tlekshay which was running for more than 10 years. Need an immediate action & justification from Twitter”, the Tibetan spokesperson said on Tuesday.
In an earlier statement, Lekshay had revealed that he was contacted by an anonymous media figure linked to the Chinese state-affiliated media on another communication platform with a request to access a mysterious link that traced back to the People’s Republic of China. As he attempted to access the link, his Twitter handle was compromised. Similar hacking and censorship instances have been reported among Tibetan social media profiles, which actively speak up against China’s policies in Tibet, which was unlawfully invaded in 1959, the report said.
The account of a prominent Tibetan activist based in Dharmshala, Himachal Pradesh, Yeshi Dawa, who was widely engaged in activities related to awareness about various social and environmental issues in the Tibetan region was also compromised earlier, the report further said. Concerns have been raised regarding censorship on Twitter related to tweets and social media posts, which China perceives as anti-China, the report said, adding that, China had recently stepped up its censorship on communication in and outside Tibet as it restricted online communications between Tibetans and their family members and friends staying abroad.