France asks Twitter to suspend ex-Malaysian PM's account for glorifying violence

American micro-blogging site, Twitter recently labelled the post by Former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad glorifying violence after three people died in a knife attack at church in Nice, France on October 29. However, French Minister of State for Digital and telecommunications Cédric O has now demanded the social media platform to suspend Mohamad’s account as the latter justified how “angry people kill” and that the French have killed millions of people including Muslims throughout the history. In the series of posts, Twitter labelled one specific section of Mohamad’s tweet saying that it “violated Twitter rules”. 

Cédric O posted hours after Mohamad’s twitter spree that the French minister spoke with Twitter France about why former Malaysian PM’s “account must be suspended” and if the website remains unsuccessful in doing so, it would be an “accomplice” to the official call for killing people. This spat comes after French President Emmanuel Macron said that knife attack in Nice was an “Islamist terrorist attack”. The unrest in France roots from the October 16 ‘terror attack’ when an 18-year-old beheaded French history teacher for showing Prophet Muhammad’s caricatures to his pupils.

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Nice attack in France

The attack on teacher near Paris was followed by Macron repeatedly condemning Islam extremism and pledging to eradicate ‘terror’ from the European nation. However, the French President’s decision of blaming it on a single religion has further angered Muslim majority states and triggered protests denouncing Macron along with calls for boycotting French goods. Amid the uproar when France was already fearing deadly attacks, an armed man with a 12-inch-long knife began stabbing people praying inside the Basilica of Notre-Dam in Nice at  8.29 AM  (local time) on October 29. 

The man reportedly slit the throat of a 60-year-old woman, a church worker and also left a woman severely injured. While the 60-year-old woman and the church worker reportedly died on the spot, the other 44-year-old woman managed to get out of the church. However, she died later succumbed to her wounds in the nearby cafe.  This gruesome attack which is now being treated as a terror attack by prosecutors came in the backdrop of thousands rallying across France in solidarity with the teacher Samuel Paty.

However, it is unclear if the October 29 Nice attack is connected to the Prophet Muhammad’s cartoons that Muslims consider blasphemous. Leaders across the globe including Prime Minister Narendra Modi have condemned the attack. But security across the nation has been tightened and the police have arrested the attacker Ibrahim Issaoui who was seriously injured and is currently hospitalised in life-threatening condition.

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