Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

thewire.in

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 261 posts

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#141

Post by colinmhayes »

gonehome wrote: post #40
wtmt wrote: post #2

Note that these tweets are only hidden for anyone in India (not removed from Twitter) since these do not violate Twitter’s terms but are being forced off the platform by a government order. I wish Twitter would put up a better fight on this, but Twitter, WhatsApp and Facebook have been on the receiving end of criticism and threats by the central government, and it looks like Twitter chooses its battles to ensure its…

We should expect better: https://zalberico.com/essay/2020/06/13/zoom-in-china.html This is a disappointing outcome of our community (software engineers, hackers, builders) and our technology - the web as we've built it. The promise of decentralized communications empowering people. We should expect more, those in a position to do the right thing at Twitter should try to do so. I hope long term something like urbit wi…

What can twitter do? Close the site in India? That accomplishes nothing. If they don't censor their local employees would be put in jail and they would be banned. Neither seems like it would be any better.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#142

Post by ndr »

oooooooooooow wrote: post #87
dasKrokodil wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Imagine the other way around, German company selling Kinder Surprise Eggs in US TIL that Kinder Surprise Eggs are illegal in the US.

Yep, a result of legislation prohibiting food items containing inedible parts iirc! I always found it amusing.

Interesting, I wonder how they kept skewers and mangos legal.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#143

Post by gonehome »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #136
gonehome wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leaving all that aside - what platforms do you believe hold promise for a decentralized future? https://urbit.org/ I think stuff like mastodon is dead on arrival and will never succeed outside of its extremely niche audience. Urbit has the potential to solve a lot of these issues because of its architecture.

You don't think urbit is extremely niche?

I think it definitely is currently, but it doesn't need to be.

The design is such that it's possible for it to be as easy to use as FB. Running your own linux server will never be.

The urbit tooling still has a way to go, but it's improving. I'm hopeful that it can get there.

Mastodon is trapped by the problems of the existing software stack - they can't escape them: https://urbit.org/understanding-urbit/

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#144

Post by colechristensen »

mrtksn wrote: post #49

The expectation that a corporation operating in India will not obey Indian laws but American ones is appalling. EU, Canada, China, Turkey or North Korea - if you want to do business there you have to respect their laws. “For profit US corporation fighting foreign government atrocities” is a deeply flawed idea. If Indians believe that they need wider free speech rights or other protections, they need to change their p…

IBM more or less actively participated in the holocaust with punchcard technology enabling large scale identification and organization of the atrocity.

Did IBM do wrong it were they just operating in a market with different laws?

How do you decide which violations of human rights are just different laws and which are crimes against humanity?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#145

Post by blackoil »

hesarenu wrote: post #116
blackoil wrote: post #38

Situation in India is far grim than Official no. portray. Many district report only <5 Covid deaths adding to the normal death rate of 50-100. But, when you go to cremation grounds they are overflowing, platforms to burn the dead a full and bodies are being burned at sides, footpath.

Have you seen them with your own eyes or just posting what someone else said?. These type of comments bodies burned on road sides, footpath were common last time as well.

Not by eyes, but heard from eyewitness. I know of people who are burned this way.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#146

Post by throwawaysea »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #136
gonehome wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Leaving all that aside - what platforms do you believe hold promise for a decentralized future? https://urbit.org/ I think stuff like mastodon is dead on arrival and will never succeed outside of its extremely niche audience. Urbit has the potential to solve a lot of these issues because of its architecture.

You don't think urbit is extremely niche?

It does seem niche to me, but I’m not sure I understand it at first glance. It feels a bit abstract. Is there an explanation for someone with no context or expertise?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#147

Post by root_axis »

cigaser wrote: post #12

It is 2021, we should have decentralised authenticated version of text board by now. All the bs about crypto disruption, but nothing for such simple case.

Decentralized subnetworks change nothing. The web is already decentralized, twitter is just a popular node. Anything that's popular will face the exact same problem.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#148

Post by TeMPOraL »

colechristensen wrote: post #144
mrtksn wrote: post #49

The expectation that a corporation operating in India will not obey Indian laws but American ones is appalling. EU, Canada, China, Turkey or North Korea - if you want to do business there you have to respect their laws. “For profit US corporation fighting foreign government atrocities” is a deeply flawed idea. If Indians believe that they need wider free speech rights or other protections, they need to change their p…

IBM more or less actively participated in the holocaust with punchcard technology enabling large scale identification and organization of the atrocity. Did IBM do wrong it were they just operating in a market with different laws? How do you decide which violations of human rights are just different laws and which are crimes against humanity?

If you think your country's company is doing wrong in a different country by following that country's laws there, push for them to exit that market entirely.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#149

Post by Dylan16807 »

gonehome wrote: post #143
Dylan16807 wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't think urbit is extremely niche?

I think it definitely is currently, but it doesn't need to be. The design is such that it's possible for it to be as easy to use as FB. Running your own linux server will never be. The urbit tooling still has a way to go, but it's improving. I'm hopeful that it can get there. Mastodon is trapped by the problems of the existing software stack - they can't escape them: https://urbit.org/understanding-urbit/

You're going to need to be more specific about how Mastodon is trapped. If I go install it in docker it's going to involve more lines of code than urbit but no user cares about that. If it's hard to configure that can definitely be fixed/escaped.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#150

Post by mrtksn »

gonehome wrote: post #138
mrtksn wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t know, should ask them. Maybe it’s because of the Googles PR giving the idea that they are not in the business of making money but organising world’s knowledge? Maybe they should ask Google why they don’t go non-profit. Maybe Google backed down because damage on the brand in US would be greater than the expected profits from China? Maybe they back down because employees went political and Google didn't want to…

Maybe because it's wrong to actively help suppress speech in a hostile country regardless of its legality in that country? Legal and ethical are not the same thing - something can be legal and unethical, or illegal and ethical.

Who says what's wrong or unethical? Would you consider unethical or wrong to take people's guns away? UK, EU or Australia might disagree with the US on this.

What about abortion? What about regulation on what goes into your body? What about blasphemy? What about ending your own life? What about pre-marital sex? What about changing your religion? What about drawing Muhammeds cartoon? What about many other things that are right or wrong depending on who you ask?

Post reply on HN