Twitter Japan appears to suspend government critics · Global Voices

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“Checking the Prime Minister's Pancakes for Poison” (パンケーキを毒見する). Image remixed by Nevin Thompson. Pancake image by ajay_suresh, from Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

As the Japanese government faces criticism for a rise in COVID-19 cases, uneven vaccination rollout, and perceived deference to the International Olympic Committee ahead of the summer Olympics, prominent commentators have claimed that  Twitter Japan, Twitter's business unit in Japan, appears to be trying to protect Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide and the government of Japan. These  commentators have seen their accounts suspended and then reactivated after public outcry, with no reason provided by Twitter Japan. In each case, the user's Twitter account was frozen after criticizing the Japanese government.

One of the suspended accounts, “Checking the Prime Minister's Pancakes for Poison” (パンケーキを毒見する), promotes the upcoming theatrical release of an animated satire that relentlessly parodies Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide. The title of the Twitter account and the upcoming film it promotes is a reference to the Japanese prime minister's attempts to use a love of pancakes as a prop to cultivate his public image.

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