Twitter suspends Farhan Virk account

Social media activist and a vocal supporter of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Farhan Khan Virk Twitter account has been suspended.

Farhan Virk is a social media activist and Political commentator who has gained following on Twitter for his tweets in support of the Pakistan Tehreek -e-Insaf government.

He became the center of controversy when it was discovered that he had been impersonating famed Pakistani physicist Abdul Qadeer Khan on Twitter, later he publically apologized for his act.

He led social media team in support of Imran Khan and PTI named, Team IK while the Official Social Media Team (SMT) of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has declared complete detachment from Farhan Khan Virk.

Farhan Virk’s Twitter account had 207,000 followers. Farhan said that he did not receive prior warning by Twitter, but now he has received an email from Twitter telling him about suspension of his account directly due to continuous violation of Twitter rules.

Farhan says he has appealed to Twitter against the account suspension and if Twitter will not ‘take notice of his appeal’ then he will announce his retirement from social media.

Farhan added that he did not think his account suspension was related to the news published on Monday in the Pakistani English newspaper Dawn in which he was accused of labeled a ‘hashtag trader’. The newspaper accused Farhan and his team of trading different hashtags on Pakistani Twitter.

He did not deny the allegation, saying that “trending a hashtag under an organized campaign is not a violation of Twitter rules. And this is not just happening in Pakistan, but fans of South Korean musical band BTS are trending the band’s hashtags around the world every day. ‘

#RestoreFarhanKVirk is trending on top on twitter while Pakistan Twitteraties are divided some are supporting Farhan Virk while some are contented with the suspension.

https://twitter.com/Nakhanmatta/status/1201496346454179841?s=20

https://twitter.com/Abidrana111/status/1201495645045039109?s=20

THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT THEY WANT!! TO BREAK OUR SPIRITS!!! TO MAKE US GIVE UP! AND YOU ARE GIVING UP!! IF THIS STAYS ON THEN EVENTUALLY EVERYONE WILL QUIET DOWN!!! WHO WILL LEAD THEN?!! THERE CANNOT BE JUST ONE LEADER IN A WAR AND THIS IS 5th GENERATION WAR!!! #RestoreFarhanKVirk https://t.co/W0UK59o5KY

— hamna27 (@hamna27) December 2, 2019

Dear @twitter please do not #RestoreFarhanKVirk because this account only posts lies, propaganda, disinformation, hatred against dissenting voices.#RestoreFarhanKVirk

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— Sheraz Raza 🇵🇰 (@Sharza80) December 2, 2019

@Twitter Please Just Dont Restore Him Back. We Are All Thankful That You Put A Fullstop To Abuse And Misinformation. Thank You So Much For Blocking @FarhanKVirk#RestoreFarhanKVirk

— Dr Maryam Malik (@DrMaryamMalik) December 2, 2019