Twitter suspended several Arabic language Twitter accounts of Qatar’s news channel Al Jazeera on Saturday, following a so-called cyber attack on the website, Kurdish news agency Rudaw reported.
Qatar, under increasing pressure from several Persian Gulf Arab countries due to its ties to Iran and regional defense policies, has been under repeated virtual sieges by several unknown actors on its websites including Al Jazeera and state news agency QNA.
The account @AJArabic was shut down by the American tech company, according to reports from outraged Twitter users of the service. Other Twitter accounts from the news channel, including @AJATheInterview, @AlJazeerafilm and @AJbelahodood were also suspended.
Later in the day, the account @AJArabic was reopened, however, due to a resetting it lost all its subscribers, according to an AFP report.
Another account by the news agency, @AJBreaking, said, “We draw our users’ attention to @AJArabic that has been suspended in what appears to be an ‘organized campaign’ and work is being done to return the service,” it wrote in Arabic.
Yaser Abuhilala, director of Al Jazeera Arabic, said that suspending accounts of the channel will not “stop the truth coming out.”
The channel has faced a series of attacks on its infrastructure in recent weeks, after the Qatar blockade was imposed by the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain.
Tehran has urged all sides to seek mediation on the issue and hoped the ongoing rift could be resolved in the interest of regional peace and stability.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints