Twitter Threatens To Ban Barkha Dutt

After a slew of threats and abuses crowded senior journalist Barkha Dutt’s Whatsapp account, she took to Twitter and published the numbers and names of the people who sent her threats nude pics and abuse. She then received a warning from Twitter saying she was ‘violating’ its rules.

Many other reporters like Ravish Kumar, Abhisar Sharma and Swati Chaturvedi had reported getting abusive texts and pictures on their Whatsapp accounts. Chaturvedi termed it as a ‘hate list’ of phone numbers with all the journalists’ numbers listed, being circulated around with the intention of targeted abuse.

Barkha Dutt lashed out at twitter mailing them a piece of her mind, which she later posted on her Twitter wall.

Officials from Twitter had asked her to remove the tweet which had the numbers shared, and threatened to deactivate her account and ban her from the website if she continues to do the same. She said she has been ‘locked out of Twitter.”

Carl Woog, who is the head of communications on Whatsapp, got in touch with Barkha through twitter offering to give as much help as she needs. He said, “Hi there – sorry to hear this. Could you follow me back? Would like to chat and help.”

Many, including Dutt, took to Twitter to offer shelter to Kashmiris facing harassment after the attack. She had mentioned that her number was available online.

On Monday, after her complaint tagging Delhi Police including Madhur Verma, the Deputy Commissioner of Police, he responded saying that police is investigating the matter.