'Trolls' rejoice! Modi govt to unblock Twitter handles barred during polls

While alarm bells were rung across social media platforms by Modi critics that free speech will witness a sudden death in the country with his ascension to power, the BJP seems to be out to prove his critics wrong. On paper, at least. According to latest reports, the government is all set to unblock accounts blocked on Twitter by handlers of the PMOIndia account. The Modi government has reportedly also asked the BJP’s IT cell to unblock hundreds of accounts they had asked to be barred on Twitter. [caption id=“attachment_1562353” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Agencies.[/caption] The two initiatives seem to be a statement to prove the naysayers about the Modi government wrong. The news comes on the back of a series of arrests made by the police in different states acting on complaints lodged by PM Modi’s fans. So this seems like the Modi government’s way of allaying fears about freedom of speech - since Twitter is known to be the ground for the most vicious, abusive political war of words. A report on DNA mentions that Narendra Modi’s team has received close to 4000 unblock requests. It quotes a member of BJP’s IT team as saying, “Nearly 2,000 followers have already been unblocked. By the end of this week, we would be able to unblock all the blocked followers. This number is expected to be around 8,000-10,000."   The Twitter handles which were unblocked were initially blocked by former PM Manmohan Singh’s team headed by Pankaj Pachauri. Meanwhile, The Economic Times reported that the BJP’s IT cell is reportedly on a process of unblocking Twitter handles they themselves had barred for being abusive. The ET quotes Vinit Goenka, co convenor of BJP’s IT cell, “We had blocked some accounts with abusive posts and tweets but with the government in place, it is time to look at interacting with everyone about collective development.” The party also intends to embrace a new policy on ’trolls’!