A Twitter spokesperson noted that the due to the said error, the social media giant had to temporarily lock Shah’s account under its global copyright policies. The decision, the spokesperson said, was reversed immediately.

Twitter has attributed to an “inadvertent error,” the removal of Union home minister Amit Shah’s profile picture from his account on the microblogging site. A Twitter spokesperson said that due to the error, the social media giant had to temporarily lock Shah’s account under its global copyright policies.

“Due to an inadvertent error, we temporarily locked this account under our global copyright policies. The decision was reversed immediately and the account is fully functional,” the spokesperson said.

On Thursday, Shah’s display picture was removed from his official Twitter account, which has 23.6 million followers, in response to a “report from the copyright holder.” Clicking on Shah’s profile picture on his Twitter handle showed a blank page with the message: ““Media not displayed. This image has been removed in response to a report from the copyright holder.”

While the image was restored later, Twitter had not shared other details. Its copyright policy states: “In general, the photographer and NOT the subject of a photograph is the actual rights holder of the resulting photograph.”

Twitter’s “inadvertent” blocking of Shah’s profile picture came on a day it came to light the Union ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had issued a notice to it, seeking an explanation in five days as to why no legal action should be taken against it for showing Leh as part of Jammu and Kashmir, and not Ladakh.

While Twitter has said it has responded to the government’s letter, it is yet to correct the map to show Leh as part of the Union territory of Ladakh, and not Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier, the social media giant had shown Leh as part of China after which the ministry had written to Twitter CEO Dorsey, raising an objection. This error, however, was rectified.

(With agency inputs)

hindustantimes.com | Edited by Karan Manral

Hindustan Times, New Delhi