Twitter blocks, unblocks dairy giant Amul

Bengaluru, June 6 (HS) Amid India-China face-off in Eastern Ladakh region, Twitter temporarily blocked Amul’s page for a brief period today morning.

Twitter had blocked the page of the diary giant allegedly for publishing a doodle against China.

The doodle read: “Exit the dragon” with the Amul girl stopping the ‘dragon’ with Chinese brands in the background. Amul also had used “Made in India” in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s latest call to nation of “Aatma Nirbhar Bharat.”

“Amul’s twitter account @amul_coop was temporarily deactivated on the late night of June 4 after our Amul Topical on “Boycott of Chinese Products” with the copy “Exit the Dragon?” 3rd June 2020. This happened without prior intimation to us,” the dairy major said in a statement.

“On the morning of 5th June, we complied with the process to reactivate our account and we were live. Our followers were not able to see the above mentioned topical due to deactivation and they came out in support of Amul and were upset with this behavior of Twitter,” Amul complained.

Seeking an explanation from Twitter for briefly blocking its account, Amul said its creations are unbiased and its topicals act like any news channel or publication without influencing viewers with any malafide intentions.

“Amul Topicals function like any news channel/publication and report the event/moment without having a biased opinion. The said topical is also a remark/question on the events taking place without influencing viewers with any malafide intentions,” the company said.

Responding to Amul, Twitter said the action was strictly for safety and security of the account, and not related to the content published.

Earlier, many netizens took to twitter and expressed anger at Twitter’s move to block Amul’s page.

One of the users wrote: “So, @Amul_Coop, a proud Indian brand, makes an ad advocating “make in India”, & minimising use of Chinese products. Why have @Twitter/@TwitterIndia got their knickers in a twist over that? Are they a Chinese brand? Do they take money from China? Are they shilling for China?”

Another stated: “In coming time, wars won’t be with ammunition but #Twitter #Instagram or #Facebook will block the countries or its president/PM.. for example today #twitter blocked #Amul it is serious guys, now we have to live the way these social media apps want.. #Shame #twitterblocksamul.”

Amul topical with the ‘Amul Girl’ was first published in 1966 and has been a chronicler in many ways from the elections of PMs and Presidents, Brexit, lockdown due to COVID-19, sports events, movies to first time airing of Ramayana and Mahabharat in 1987 and 1989, to even events like Emergency in India in 1976.