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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

#41

Post by aravindet »

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…

Correct, I do not think it is realistic to expect Twitter to behave differently. I do not believe it's Twitter's behavior that the original article is trying to highlight.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#42

Post by berryjerry »

esperent wrote: post #28
berryjerry wrote: post #23

Twitter will ban the American President but is afraid not to listen to the Indian government. I guess they choose what political parties they want to support.

Twitter waited until a couple of days before the president left office to do that, after waiting through years of flagrant rule violation, and until they were extremely certain of the way public opinion had swung. That was no act of courage from them, it was purely to try and manage public opinion.

No they banned him from posting while he was still in office.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#43

Post by Kaze404 »

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.

I just read a thread on Twitter where the user complains about the English translation of an anime, and 6 tweets later is saying they don't care about the opinion of "blacks / LGBT" and literally defending Nazis. Can't say the argument for less moderation is appealing to me.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#45

Post by ttt0 »

nemothekid wrote: post #30
colordrops wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banning certain tweets related to the Hunter Biden scandal.

Did the Hunter Biden story ever have any legs? As far as I can tell: 1. A grown man, who was not running for president, was doing drugs. 2. He was hired by company to try and gain favor with the White House, which backfired when the White House decided to act against their interest anyways (in other words the guy running for vice president didn't give the company a sweetheart deal because his son was on the board). W…

Why did people try so hard to censor this story?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#46

Post by gowthamgts12 »

hunter-2 wrote: post #22
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

The list of tweets removed are here: https://thewire.in/tech/as-covid-19-crisis-deepens-twitter-t... Anybody with a VPN or is outside India can indeed read and make their mind up. Edit: Every propaganda has an inkling of truth to it. That's why people believe it. And that's how everyone from Goebbels to the current Indian administration operate. Cherrypicking just the obviously fake ones to make your point is silly.

getting 404 on the above link

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#47

Post by cigaser »

nsood wrote: post #34
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.

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.

Twitter is moderated, but is also full of political extremism. People leave Twitter all the time.

Moderation is solved problem. There are email spam filters, network of trusted people, proof of work...

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#48

Post by KMag »

29athrowaway wrote: post #31
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…

Alternatively, they can fight, be banned from India, and then have to compete against Indian Twitter 5 years from now in the international arena.

I'm not familiar with Indian law, but would it be legal for them to be more transparent by replacing the offending tweets with "This message has been hidden in India by order of the Indian government"?

On the other hand, my understanding is that Twitter did self-report these actions to Harvard, so they should be given some credit.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#49

Post by mrtksn »

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 political figures and laws accordingly. It’s unreasonable to expect that a foreign corporation will do that for them, it even might be the case that they(the locals) don’t want it.

Imagine the other way around, Italian company selling Kinder Surprise Eggs in US, Swiss company doing banking by the Swiss laws in US, Malta company running gambling in the US by the Maltese laws. Would they be considered fighting the unreasonable food regulations, toppling the oppressive financial laws or pushing against tyrannical gambling laws of the US? I don’t think so.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#50

Post by jimbob45 »

Kaze404 wrote: post #43
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.

I just read a thread on Twitter where the user complains about the English translation of an anime, and 6 tweets later is saying they don't care about the opinion of "blacks / LGBT" and literally defending Nazis. Can't say the argument for less moderation is appealing to me.

I don’t need someone else to tell me what is right for me to see. I would never do that to anyone else either.

We’re talking text here btw, so CP/gore/revenge porn don’t count because those can’t be transmitted over text (links aside).

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