New Delhi: The Twitter account of the independent news organisation NewsClick, which was suspended on August 12, has now been restored. The suspension came days after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had accused it of publishing “Chinese propaganda”, citing a New York Times report.The page now reads: “Twitter suspends accounts that violate the Twitter Rules. Learn more.”“We have not received any email informing us about the suspension of the website’s Twitter handle. We have filed an appeal and are awaiting their response now,” said a source at the NewsClick editorial team.The Wire has reported how BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had on August 7 cited a report by the New York Times in the Lok Sabha to claim that Congress leaders and NewsClick had received funds from China to create an “anti-India” atmosphere.The article was published on Saturday, August 5.“Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Nafrat ki Dukaan‘ (shop of hate) has Chinese ‘samaan’ (goods),” said Dubey, adding that the article had said that Rs 38 crore has been received by NewsClick.Prabhir Purkayastha, NewsClick‘s owner, issued a statement denying “any insinuation that [NewsClick] function[s] as a mouth-piece of the Communist Party of China or other interests” is false.However, BJP MPs soon afterwards shared the NYT piece multiple times to attack the news portal, some independent journalists and Congress’s Rahul Gandhi.In the aftermath, four media bodies – the Press Club of India, the Indian Women’s Press Corps, the Delhi Union of Journalists and Press Association – issued a joint statement expressing deep concern over the targeted campaign, calling that the insinuation that it is a China mouthpiece is “unwarranted and condemnable”.In June this year, Twitter’s former owner Jack Dorsey had said that the Narendra Modi government had made “many requests” to Twitter during the farmers’ protests for the deletion of content by journalists critical of official policy and also threatened to shut down Twitter in India and raid its employees’ homes.Its new owner Elon Musk has, meanwhile, been keen to follow domestic rules. He told the BBC in April this year that he was likely to comply with the blocking orders issued by the Indian government instead of facing a situation where Twitter employees could be sent to jail.Note: This article was originally published at 1:57 pm on August 13, 2023 and republished at 7:10 pm on August 14, 2023.