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Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

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Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#71

Post by dtwest »

alex_smart wrote: post #69

I do not necessarily have a problem with social media websites setting their own moderation policies, but for a long time it has been clear that twitter's actions in India are far from politically neutral. I also find it funny that Americans who have raised so much noise over last few years about Russians "hacking" their elections consider another country's government trying to limit or regulate an American company's…

It is important to point out that the Americans concerned about Russian hacking are often not the same Americans concerned with protecting free speech.

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#72

Post by BhavdeepSethi »

zerop wrote: post #4

>> The move comes as tension escalates between the Indian government and Twitter. Google, Facebook, and several other firms have partially or fully complied with the IT rules, which among other things, requires any significant social media firm (any firm with over 5 million users in India) to appoint a chief compliant officer, a resident grievance officer, and a so-called nodal contact person to address on-ground con…

One of the things that doesn't get mentioned is that the compliant officer is legally responsible, if the content isn't taken down in a stipulated duration of time. Be jailed, if the company fails to act on any instance. That's a hard job to sell.

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#73

Post by Majromax »

wongarsu wrote: post #21
6510 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how would one even sort search results without bias?

I think most would call the original pagerank algorithm unbiased. Sure, any algorithm will have a bias towards a certain content length, or towards pages that contain the search terms at a particular density. But by doing that you don't arrive at algorithms that have an opinion on the holocaust or Tiananmen Square [1]. Of course Twitter somehow managed to implement the worst of both worlds, with a sorting algorithm t…

> I think most would call the original pagerank algorithm unbiased.

I disagree: the point of the original Pagerank algorithm was its bias. In particular, its use of link weights gave the algorithm a strong bias for (a proxy for) relevance.

An "unbiased" search algorithm would need to return results based on simple criteria, readily explained and presented to the searcher, such as "date first crawled" or "number of keyword appearances."

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#74

Post by alex_smart »

dtwest wrote: post #71
alex_smart wrote: post #69

I do not necessarily have a problem with social media websites setting their own moderation policies, but for a long time it has been clear that twitter's actions in India are far from politically neutral. I also find it funny that Americans who have raised so much noise over last few years about Russians "hacking" their elections consider another country's government trying to limit or regulate an American company's…

It is important to point out that the Americans concerned about Russian hacking are often not the same Americans concerned with protecting free speech.

But I am sure there will be a big intersection between the Americans concerned about Russian hacking (liberals) and the people who will see this as an authorian government attacking free speech (also liberals).

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#75

Post by mlnj »

Valmar wrote: post #32
alisonkisk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nothing sinister when demagogues want to shut down the free press to cement their own power?

Twitter is the complete opposite of "the free press". Twitter's admins arbitrarily remove content that they disagree with, while allowing content they do agree with, regardless of whether said content is illegal or not.

And the whole objection is that Twitter is not bowing down to the requests of the government to censor what the government feels should be censored.

So the crux of the whole thing is not the censorship but the entity censoring the content. And obviously the government wants to wield this power.

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#76

Post by mlnj »

kumarvvr wrote: post #52
xfer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/why-indian-courts-shou...

The internet is an oversized megaphone. A couple of 1000 dedicated workers can spread rumours, panic and propaganda. When you have a country of 1.3 billion people, a large portion of whom also have smartphones, who, unfortunately are also uneducated and gullible, you have the perfect environment to cause trouble. Apps like WA and Telegram, enable this megaphone to reach every nook and corner of the country. If tomorr…

> If tomorrow, there is a coordinated rumour mongering going on, leading to riots and deaths, dont you think those who started the rumour be caught?

There is a constant stream of misinformation spread via government sources in the country. The Indian government over the last 7 years have steadily weaponized social media to dehumanize opponents and carve away rights from a very large section of the dissidents.

This call for war against misinformation that you point to seems to be always targeted towards the government's opposition most times. Can you clarify why twitter should be on the line for this and not most other entities including news channels & politicians who directly preach to '1.3 billion people, a large portion of whom also have smartphones, who, unfortunately are also uneducated and gullible, you have the perfect environment to cause trouble.'

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#77

Post by thoughty »

I wanted to give a little context on how laws in India work. It has to be passed in the lower house (Lok Sabha) and the upper house (Rajya Sabha). While the ruling party (BJP) has majority in Lok Sabha is does not have so in Rajya Sabha. Also note that the members of the 2 houses are elected independently in different elections are at different times. For a Bill to become an Act, it has to pass in both houses and then be ratified by the President. The President and refuse and ask for re-evaluation if he disagrees. So for any bill to become an Act a lot of people across both the aisles (across parties) have to agree. I mention this because inevitably I expect someone to post that this is authoritarian policy (which it is not). While some may disagree a majority agree (including me).

edit: fixed typos.

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#78

Post by square_usual »

thoughty wrote: post #77

I wanted to give a little context on how laws in India work. It has to be passed in the lower house (Lok Sabha) and the upper house (Rajya Sabha). While the ruling party (BJP) has majority in Lok Sabha is does not have so in Rajya Sabha. Also note that the members of the 2 houses are elected independently in different elections are at different times. For a Bill to become an Act, it has to pass in both houses and the…

The Government and its allies have a simple majority in the Rajya Sabha.

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#79

Post by sumedh »

kumarvvr wrote: post #52
xfer wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/06/why-indian-courts-shou...

The internet is an oversized megaphone. A couple of 1000 dedicated workers can spread rumours, panic and propaganda. When you have a country of 1.3 billion people, a large portion of whom also have smartphones, who, unfortunately are also uneducated and gullible, you have the perfect environment to cause trouble. Apps like WA and Telegram, enable this megaphone to reach every nook and corner of the country. If tomorr…

> dont you think those who started the rumour be caught?

Do you also want people who expose govt corruption or criticise the govt to be caught?

Re: Twitter has lost liability protection in India, government says

#80

Post by thaumasiotes »

alex_smart wrote: post #70
potamic wrote: post #37

I don't know if many people realize, but this is a pivotal moment for freedom of speech in India. The archaic IT act and National Security Act are already being severely abused to arrest journalists and activists, and the new 2021 rules take this to a completely new level. What they are essentially going for is unrestricted authority on content takedown and traceability of originator of content which will force compa…

>Today, saying that cow dung does not cure covid, can land you in jail because it goes against the government's narrative. I overall agree with the point that many indian authorities have been using laws to punish dissent, but that is a little disingenuous. The specific context in that case was that those comments were made about the death of a BJP leader. So, those people were jailed for mocking the death of a polit…

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