Live data from Hacker News

Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

thewire.in

191–200 of 261 posts

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#191
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unmoderated social media (which I'm guessing is your goal with decentralization) tends to accumulate people who have been kicked off all moderated social media - see stuff like Parler, Ruqqus, etc. I don't think removing all ability for moderation is a good idea, more of a balance is necessary.

And the first uses of bitcoin where shady, or outright illegal, given those users had the greatest incentives to use alt currencies - this was the main attack by detractors.

Outside of speculation and hype; is there currently much demand for bitcoin as a currency outside of industries that operate in a legal grey area?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#192
post #56

It is not the governments duty to maintain an image, citizens or foreign parties are always free to criticise or praise any government. If the government feels something is factually wrong then it can present statements from its press agency but not suppress criticism. This is the difference between an authoritative regime & a democracy. Whenever we are done with dealing with the pandemic who ever is responsible for…

In too many countries citizens are not free to criticize their government. Foreigners can get into trouble too if they criticize while in the country. Thailand, for example, has strict laws about criticizing the monarchy. Some of us take our right to freely criticize our government without penalty for granted and imagine it applies everywhere, but that isn’t the case.

Exactly, countries need to come clean & mention how would they treat non-citizens whether physically present or digitally participating

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. The U.S. 300 million citizen don’t have the monopoly on morals when 1 billion Indians have a different idea about them. So don’t be pretentious, adapt to local laws and let people figure out their own ideas about life. Maybe, just maybe, the U.S. has the wrong laws.

1 billion Indians aren't all supporters of government censorship of criticism. If the US government enacted some ridiculous law, you would hope that US corporations would try to push back a bit, at least rhetorically, because you recognize that the state isn't its people. Why suddenly the different tone for India?

Plenty of countries in the world have a lax view on nudity, show it on TV, go to the beach naked, have a regulated sex work industry etc.

Yet, since almost all large platforms and payment processors are American, good luck posting photos of sand dunes because some algorithm at Facebook might confuse it with woman's breasts, and I don't see anyone pushing back.

Point being adapt to local laws and culture instead of pretending that a couple of thousand of unelected dudes in Silicon Valley should have any say in what's allowed in some country none of them stepped foot in.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> "What can twitter do? Close the site in India? That accomplishes nothing." Sure - if it came to that, try and get Indians access anyway via VPNs, making it easy to access over Tor, helping them get on Twitter anyway. You can accomplish something by not sacrificing your principles. Doing the right thing matters when it's hard. Anyone can do the right thing when it's also the easy thing. I'm not a crazed absolutist -…

The very same values are not popular in Twitters home country USA anymore, why do you think it's a corporations tree to die under? Ban Tweets and move on.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#197
post #34
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.

Unmoderated social media (which I'm guessing is your goal with decentralization) tends to accumulate people who have been kicked off all moderated social media - see stuff like Parler, Ruqqus, etc. I don't think removing all ability for moderation is a good idea, more of a balance is necessary.

What's the problem with that? You don't have to read these people's posts if you don't like them, just like I don't have to watch conspiracy bullshit on youtube. Maybe I want to read these folks' posts! The platform shouldn't make that decision for me.

With well designed communication tools, you don't need moderators to decide what kind of content you see. You and your immediate network will be your own moderators by implicit action and inaction (and if everything is designed right, you can also take explicit action to e.g. drop that flat earth shit from your feed that shows up because your best friend keeps reading and upvoting it).

This is exactly how the real world works too. I choose who to chat and hang out with, I don't need to call cops to remove marketers and idiots from the world for me.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In too many countries citizens are not free to criticize their government. Foreigners can get into trouble too if they criticize while in the country. Thailand, for example, has strict laws about criticizing the monarchy. Some of us take our right to freely criticize our government without penalty for granted and imagine it applies everywhere, but that isn’t the case.

Exactly, countries need to come clean & mention how would they treat non-citizens whether physically present or digitally participating

If you visit a foreign country you need to learn about the laws that may affect you. Plenty of sources for that — travel guide books, State Dept. web site.

As for digitally participating, you probably can’t face prosecution outside the country, but if you visit later you might get arrested. Violating Thailand’s lese majeste laws is not a crime outside of Thailand, for example, but you can be held responsible for social media posts if you come under Thai jurisdiction.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#199
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…

>If Indians believe that they need wider free speech rights or other protections, they need to change their political figures and laws accordingly.

That's a wonderful idea. Pity it's censored in India.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#200
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?

Are you under the impression that there isn't a conspiracy related to the virus? Did Klaus Schwab say "The pandemic represents a rare but narrow window of opportunity to reflect, reimagine, and reset our world"? Did the WEF say "To build back better, we must reinvent capitalism"? Did Justin Trudeau say "this pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset"? Did he repeat the words "build back better" and express sup…

Greta Thunberg tweeted by accident some kind of internal memo with their talking points, so there is that.

The reality is that all these powerful people know each other, go to parties with one another, are a part of same organizations like Bilderberg or WEF, and share memos with what are they supposed to say to the public. It's not coincidental and saying that it is is pure gaslighting.

Post reply on HN