Twitter blocks Amul from platform

In an unusual turn of events, Twitter temporarily restricted the official handle of Indian dairy major Amul. While it initially seemed that the action was due to one of the brand’s recent topical social media creatives crafted around a ‘red dragon’, Twitter later clarified that the action was only for safety and security of the account and not related to the content published. Amul is probably the earliest practitioners of moment marketing and the brand over decades has always had a say in popular topics from foreign policy to cricket. The witty ads generally feature Amul’s mascot, the round eyed moppet popularly known as The Amul Girl.

The brand recently published a creative around the ongoing conversations of ditching Chinese made goods and adopting ‘swadeshi’ or Indian made products. The sentiment was originally triggered by a recent speech by PM Modi where he urged the nation to become ‘atmanirbhar’ or self sufficient. The copy of the Amul ad reads, “Exit the dragon?” And, the visual features the The Amul Girl taking a stance against a red dragon (which is also holding a Chinese flag).

This is also not the first that Amul’s creatives featured India-China conversations. Amul has also published ads around border tussles in the past. The brand’s account has been re-activated.

“The ad is not wrong in any way. Amul Girl captures the mood of the nation. She has commented on everything from Trump to Covid... We have asked Twitter for a clarification,” RS Sodhi, MD, GCMMF, told a national news channel.

Twitter later clarified that the action was for safety and security of Amul's account and not related to the content published.

“Safety and security of the accounts is a key priority for us and to ensure an account has not been compromised sometimes we require the account owner to complete a simple reCAPTCHA process. 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 the account regains full access. To protect the accounts we routinely require them to clear this security key for login verification," a Twitter spokesperson said.

(The story has been updated with the clarification and the statement from Twitter which we received after the story was published.)