Twitter restores verified blue tick of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s personal account
New Delhi, Jun 5: Social media giant Twitter on Saturday removed the blue verification tick from the accounts of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat and other senior functionaries only to restore it after a lot of hue and cry by Sangh sympathisers on social media.
Taking strong objection, Rajiv Tuli, a functionary in Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's (RSS) Delhi unit, told PTI that this "clearly shows biasness and a clear example of 'tech feudalism' by Twitter".
He cited several Twitter handles which have been "inactive but continue to remain verified".
The blue tick, which is a verification badge, was removed from five accounts belonging to senior functionaries of the RSS, the ruling BJP's ideological mentor, sources in the Sangh said.
Later in the day, the verification badge of Bhagawat, Suresh Soni, Arun Kumar, Suresh Joshi and Krishna Gopal was restored.
Tuli said it was "done after much heckling".
Senior RSS functionaries including Bhagwat had joined Twitter in July 2019.
Sources in the Sangh said that the accounts were created to "check the spread of misinformation by parody accounts".
Earlier in the day, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu's verification badge was also removed which was later restored.
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Online fraud: Hotel chef from Udupi cheated of over Rs 1 lakh by WhatsApp contact
Udupi: Udupi City Police have registered a case of online fraud after a 62-year-old hotel chef was allegedly cheated of Rs 1.13 lakh by a woman who befriended him on WhatsApp, claiming to be based in London.
The victim, identified as Pandu Kariappa Poojary, a resident of Kuthpadi in Udupi, was working at a hotel in Mangaluru.
He reportedly came into contact with a woman identifying herself as Emilda William on WhatsApp. During their interactions, she told Poojary that she planned to start a cosmetics and hotel business in India and would meet him during a visit to Mangaluru.
On April 7, Emilda sent Poojary a flight ticket from London to Delhi via WhatsApp. The following day, Poojary received a phone call from a woman who informed him that Emilda had arrived at Delhi airport carrying a demand draft worth Rs 5 crore along with other items. The caller allegedly asked him to pay Rs 70,000.
Subsequently, Poojary also received a call from Emilda, who was reportedly crying and spoke about the situation. Believing the claims, he transferred a total of Rs 1,13,300 in phases using a scanner. He later realised that he had been cheated.
