Amul account deactivated after 'boycott China' post; Twitter says due to security concerns

The Twitter account of Amul, a well-known and famous dairy cooperative, was deactivated temporarily after the much famous 'Amul girl' topical was released on 'Boycott of Chinese Products' with the copy 'Exit the Dragon?'.

However, Twitter has maintained that the action was taken for the safety of the account. The matter has been taken up by Amul with Twitter. 

The account was deactivated on June 04 and after the company complied with the reactivation process, the account was live the next morning.  

"Amul Butter girl spare none, favour none and fears none. She tells the mood of nation", Amul told WION, when asked about the incident. 

While the company has said it wasn't informed about the deactivation, Twitter says the action was strictly for safety and security of the account, and not related to the content published. 

A twitter spokesperson told WION, "The account was caught in our spam filter. Safety and security of the accounts is a key priority for us and sometimes to ensure an account has not been compromised we require the account owner to complete a simple reCAPTCHA process also termed as an ‘anti-spam’ challenge."

Explaining, "These challenges are simple for authentic account owners to solve, but difficult (or costly) for spammy or malicious account owners to complete. Once the account clears this security step, as was the case with @Amul_Coop, the account regains full access. To protect the accounts we routinely require them to clear this  security key for login verification.”

Twitter has suggested a two-factor authentication and Regularly review any third-party applications to make the account safer.

Amul Topical with the 'Amul Girl' first came up 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.