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#Twitterpasswords trend in India

Arafatul Islam August 26, 2014

Twitter and Facebook users have turned to the social networks to protest The Times of India’s new policy, which reportedly forces its staff to share their social media passwords. DW looks at the #Twitterpasswords trend.

https://p.dw.com/p/1D1E9
Image: Indranil Mukherjee/AFP/Getty Images

Employees of Times of India, the country's largest English newspaper, have reportedly been asked to share their Twitter and Facebook passwords, so that the media organization post updates on the social networks on their behalf, according to business publication Quartz. The company's request, which poses some privacy and data protection concerns, has led Indians to take to Twitter and Facebook using #Twitterpasswords on Twitter, which had used more than 3,000 times in three hours at 11:50 UTC.

The hashtag has also been used to suggest passwords for the accounts of celebrities and politicians - some of which are not politically correct.

And others have been less kind in their criticism of The Times of India.

What would you do if you were asked by your employer to share your social media passwords?