The Criminal Court has issued an order to identify the person or group of people that operate the “Hassan Kurusee” account on Twitter.
The Criminal Court granted the order at the request of the police to uncover the identity of “Hassan Kurusee,” an anonymous user with more than 12,000 followers that criticizes government officials and alleges corruption, Adhadhu has confirmed.
The police also confirmed efforts to find out the owner of the Kurusee account with the court warrant.
The police would have to officially submit a request to Twitter with the court order. But Twitter does not usually reveal private information upon request by governments.
In a tweet about the matter, the account said efforts to identify Kurusee by the government with “ties to extremists” was undemocratic. The lives of many people would be endangered if Twitter discloses the information, it added.
Speculation on Twitter about the Hassan Kurusee account at first focused on Speaker Mohamed Nasheed, who was alleged to have made a new account after he was publicly revealed to be behind an unofficial account under the name of “Alex Ahmed.”
But Nasheed denied the allegation. In April, Nasheed filed a complaint with the police to find out Kurusee's identity, citing confusion over links to the account.
The Kurusee account was pro-government early in the administration’s term but now criticises the government and levels corruption allegations.
When the Kurusee account alleged corruption by the Addu city council in leasing a warehouse in Hithadhoo last May, Mayor Ali Nizar denied any wrongdoing, accused the account of sowing discord and asked the police to find out who was operating it. The inability to stop such tweets was a failure of ministers, he said.
The police said the matter was under investigation but not much progress had been made to date.
Fake Twitter accounts have been used recently to promote political ideologies and to campaign and smear opponents. Artificial intelligence has also been used to create deepfake photos of non-existent people.
