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The Ministry of Foreign of Affairs and Regional Integration of Ghana had to block its X handle from receiving replies after being abused online over its statement on the recent Israel Palestine conflict.
The Ministry had released an official statement saying it stands with Israel in the wake of renewed hostility between Israel and Palestine over the Gaza strip.
The statement which reached over 400,000 X users attracted very negative reactions and replies which prompted Ghana to disable the reply function.
Many Ghanaians trooped to the page to abuse the Ministry with some using intemperate language against the government of Ghana.
The Ministry quickly disabled the reply function of the Tweet on X allowing only those it follows or mentions to reply.
As at press time this morning, the function remains disabled due to the abuse and insults on the President of Ghana and the Minister of Foreign Affairs herself from some section of Ghanaians.
A subsequent statement announcing the safety of Ghanaians in Israel also had its reply function disabled by the Ministry.
In the first statement that generated controversy, the government of Ghana reaffirmed its support to Israel, after a deadly attack by Hamas militants on Southern Israel.
In the statement released on Sunday, October 8 by Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, the government said, “Ghana unequivocally condemns the attacks and calls on the Hamas leadership to immediately cease the attacks and withdraw its militants from southern Israel.”
“While Ghana affirms its support for Israel’s right to exist and defend itself, it calls on the Israeli government to exercise restraint in its response to Hamas attacks”the statement noted.
The government of Ghana, however called on the two sides to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to return to the negotiation table.
Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip reportedly infiltrated into southern Israel to attack innocent Israeli civilians.
Israel says more than 600 people have been killed and 100 kidnapped.
In Gaza, at least 313 people have been killed following retaliatory Israeli air strikes, according to Palestinian officials.
The Ministry’s resort to censure may attract attention of democracy and free speech observers globally as it is a public office funded by citizens’ taxes.
Twitter formerly X introduced the reply censure feature because it claims “users feel more comfortable Tweeting and more protected from spam and abuse.
It said allowing users to blocks replies prevented an average of three potentially abusive replies while only adding one potentially abusive Retweet with Comment. Twitter says it is a method to “block out noise”.
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