Kurukshetra, September 1: The verified Twitter handle of rape convict Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh has been suspended. After his conviction for raping two of his women disciples, on August 25. Though the Twitter handle was noticed in the suspension mode in India on Friday morning, a verified Facebook page of the convict continues to be active.
Interestingly, the virtual following of Ram Rahim’s Twitter handle @Gurmeetramrahim has witnessed a dip since his conviction.
On August 28, he had 3.74 million followers on Twitter whereas five days later his suspended Twitter page shows 3.6 million followers.Ram Rahim’s Twitter handle follows none.He joined the platform in October 2014 and had tweeted 2,899 times. He tweeted last on August 24, a day prior to his conviction in the rape case.On his FB page @SaintDrMSG7, the jailed Dera head has a following of 7.68 lakh whereas 7.58 lakh have liked it. No change in his virtual following on FB is noticed in the last few days.His FB page has not been updated after August 24 midnight.Cyber experts say not all public figures or celebrities get this privileged status. Application for a ‘blue badge’ is subjected to various levels of scrutiny by social media platforms.Social media platforms offer verified account to an individual in recognition of his or her contribution to society in their respective profession or area of interest.Sources said a considerable section of Dera Sacha Sauda followers were asked to re-tweet, like and share Facebook posts of Ram Rahim as a part of their “sewa” or service to the Dera.New Delhi-based corporate lawyer Hemant K Batra said the Haryana government should approach Facebook for the immediate closure of Ram Rahim’s verified page as it was glamourising a criminal.He said the social media platforms should play a proactive role in the permanent withdrawal of verified accounts once a person was convicted of a serious crime.“A convict or an accused may use various applications on the social media platforms for secret property deals or disseminate nefarious messages to the masses. There is a need for legislation to handle such issues where social media account of a convict or an accused is suspended as per legal procedure,” said Batra.
News Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com
