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Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

thewire.in

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Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#181

Post by manub22 »

hunter-2 wrote: post #166
manub22 wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The pics of pyres shared in the tweet were common in India before the Covid started. Just go to any crematorium in India and you will see similar situation, dead bodies keeps on coming and their relatives burn them and do the last rites. Its not new to India, but the way its portrayed that pyres are only due to Corona pandemic is totally wrong !!!

So you are denying India even has a Covid emergency?

I didn't said there is no covid emergency, but tweets which are spreading lies, hoax and demeaning our PM Modi should be taken down, that's what I'm saying !!!

Check a tweet which changes people perception: https://twitter.com/akhileshsharma1/status/13863780415011799...

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#182

Post by hesarenu »

aravindet wrote: post #165
hesarenu wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying the tweets mentioned in the article are false? (from Vindos Das, Kapri, Hansraj etc)

I am saying the tweets mentioned in the article are cherry-picked to paint this censorship in a positive light as these tweets contained false claims. The issue at hand is that the government censored other tweets that are accurate or are statements of opinion rather than on making factual claims. The tweets mentioned by Medianama and The Wire are are not, by any stretch of the imagination, disinformation. They blame…

Did you read the article. Once guy posted a old cremation pic as covid cremation happening now. Another posted a pic about a different city as happening in guj(since modis from guj). They are by definition disinformation. Unless you have a source that includes other tweets which are accurate.

For Wire claims it be true while OP claims its false. Obviously OP is more free to diss on that. If the situation was reversed than Wire would have posted and OP not. These are media houses not Truth seeking journalists. Carvan has a tweet about farmer killed by bullet when it was not. Not sure if its deleted now, but it was there for a long time and Twitter did nothing.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#183

Post by ttt0 »

colinmhayes wrote: post #155
ttt0 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why did people try so hard to censor this story?

Because people are idiots and would be swayed by hannity sound bites even though the story has nothing to do with Joe?

Damn, that's a wild thing to say in response to a censorship of a true story. I mean seriously, why even bother having democracy and free speech at this point. How does that make you any different from a dictator that's censoring any story that's unfavorable to him, even if it's something petty and of no significance?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#184

Post by throwawayfrauds »

kumarm wrote: post #55

I think there is far bigger issue than censorship here. Significant portion of Indians already think there is big conspiracy behind Covid19 and everyone (Media, Governments, Healthcare professions, Big businesses, Pharma) is it to "$Insert your conspiracy here". Now they see tweets being deleted just for being critical on government handling of issue. Doesn't that add fuel to conspiracy theories?

I think they realized that deleting tweets really helps shut down conspiracy theories. The main Twitter account I followed for videos of the pandemic situation in China at the beginning of 2020 was banned just before covid really hit the US. Numerous blue-check accounts (including some fringe “journalists”) had reported it for misinformation and several claimed the situation was not that bad in China and that the videos were somehow doctored. He stopped posting anything about the pandemic on his Facebook and Instagram accounts out of fear of having those permanently banned as well. So censorship can work. The saddest thing is that Twitter banned his account without any government intervention.

EDIT: Not all of reporters I mentioned were fringe. Two were from the Atlantic and Buzzfeed, and both claimed that the Coronavirus situation was overblown and that people saying otherwise were fear-mongering. Helping them out were a couple of epidemiologists who were also claiming that the coronavirus danger was overhyped. This was late January 2020.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#187

Post by galtwho »

galtwho wrote: post #3

Few of the tweets removed are detailed here https://www.opindia.com/2021/04/covid-pandemic-hoax-to-shari... Ps : the usual propaganda site or govt mouthpiece claims are bound to come out now. Read the article and make up your mind

looks like the above msg is being brigaded and downvoted to hide the news

@dang fyi

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#188

Post by gregjor »

runeks wrote: post #175
gregjor wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Democracy and free speech do not necessarily go together. Democracy is a system of government “by the people,” usually in the form of voting for representatives. Censorship and free speech do not necessarily follow from that political system, being more in the realm of basic human rights. Around the world democracy takes many forms. So do cultural and political notions of free speech, and government’s role regulating…

What if, in a democracy, 51% of voters agree to take away the voting rights of the remaining 49%? Would this still be a “democracy”? Related to this is the question of whether a democracy even makes sense without freedom of speech. How is the voter supposed to know who to vote for if the opposition party is not allowed to criticize the incumbents?

I don’t intend to argue theoreticals. I meant to point out that democracy and free speech are not the same thing. A hereditary monarchy with no democracy can allow free speech. A democratically elected government can impose censorship and limitations on speech.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#189

Post by radiator »

gonehome wrote: post #74
duskwuff wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I wish Twitter would put up a better fight on this India banned TikTok last year after the app was determined to be "prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order". Twitter doesn't want to be next.

TikTok's ban is different (and arguably reasonable). The way TikTok manipulates its feed to serve the CCP's interests and influence public sentiment in the country is a threat. Things like downplaying the CCP's invasion of HK. https://stratechery.com/2020/the-tiktok-war/ That's basically the opposite of what's happening here. TikTok's threat is foreign government manipulation of the public and the block is blocking t…

But from the point of view of the Indian government, those two "opposite" things are the same.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#190

Post by mrtksn »

fakedang wrote: post #177
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…

Uh, hello? By law India is a democracy, where it has always been OK to criticize the government - at least up until 2014, when the current government began abusing the British Era sedition laws. I think every Indian on this site is old enough to remember who the protests against the Delhi Rape Crisis and the government response were effectively coordinated on Twitter and Facebook. Twitter wouldn't have been breaking…

Okay, what's the expectation here? Twitter fixing the "wrong choice" the Indians made in 2014? That doesn't sound like a democracy to me either.

IMHO, if that's the case Indians need to get a new government and fight their own wars. Why would Twitter be liberating the Indian people? If anything, that "liberation" would come at a cost just as with the USSR liberating Germany from the Nazis, US liberating Iraqi people from Saddam, Turkey liberating Turkish Cypriots from the Greek dictatorship.

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