Twitter users slam microblogging site after reports of Amul's account being temporarily suspended

Microblogging site Twitter on June 4 briefly restricted Amul's official account citing "unusual activity" from it.

The caution alert displayed on its account was, however, removed later and the dairy company was able to use its account.

Amul Managing Director RS Sodhi was surprised at the action taken by Twitter, without any intimation to the company. He said as per a report by The Times of India that the company has sought a response as to why it was not taken into confidence before the temporary restriction was put in place. Sodhi said the company's Twitter account was blocked on the night of June 4, and restored on June 5 morning.

"Our account was blocked on June 4. Following some protocols, it was reactivated. We've asked Twitter why account was blocked, but haven't received formal reply yet," Sodhi told news agency ANI.

Following this incident, several users of the social media platform expressed an objection to the same. Many began linking this brief restriction to Amul's recent support for made-in-India products and the call to support a boycott of Chinese products.

"The Amul Butter Girl has and will comment on the mood of the nation. She doesn’t fear or favour anyone. If the nation feels about something, she will speak about it, whether it is political, national or global," Sodhi told BusinessLine.

#Twitter blocked Amul for few mins for doing this and the Chinese do not even allow twitter in the mainland. How Shameful are Commies of California. pic.twitter.com/WjwZzenWvi

— Quarantined Naga (@ADenzing) June 6, 2020

#Twitter blocked #Amul for a while. Time to have our own social media platform. pic.twitter.com/xcs0eIshHi — Abhishek Kumar (@AbhishekPranu) June 6, 2020

Shocked to hear that@twitter has blocked#Amul its ours choice what to buy and wat to boycott.. pic.twitter.com/O8f17lymE8

— Roushan Prakash (@Roushan_Yadav) June 6, 2020

Twitter blocked the account of #Amul for posting this picture. Do we have any creative freedom in real? And what did china do to get the backing of all these social media giants anyway? #BoycottChineseProductspic.twitter.com/16CzLppdpp — Ayush PB (@AyushPB1) June 6, 2020

The home-grown dairy brand had, in its latest topical, depicted its much-popular Amul girl saving India from a dragon.

The image had a logo of the Chinese video-sharing app TikTok in the background, along with the words 'Made in India' in bold.

This ad by Amul came soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for a self-reliant India (Atmanirbhar Bharat).

A Twitter spokesperson on June 6 said the account was restricted after being caught in the microblogging platform's security processes, news agency PTI has reported. However, PTI said Twitter did not link the account suspension to Amul's recent advertisement.

"Safety and security of the accounts is a key priority for us and to ensure an account has not been compromised sometimes we require the account owner to complete a simple reCAPTCHA process. These challenges are simple for authentic account owners to solve, but difficult (or costly) for spammy or malicious account owners to complete," a Twitter spokesperson told PTI  in an emailed statement.

Once the account clears this security step, the account regains full access, the statement added.