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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

#61

Post by throwawaysea »

Leary wrote: post #44

Can anyone comment on the legality of these orders. Are they codified or arbitrary

Someone in India can perhaps shed more light but from what I read it is legal because the misinformation in the blocked tweets can be considered to be disturbing the tranquility by inducing panic (https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/nrc-protests-caa-prote...). It seems somewhat like the “yelling fire in a crowded theater” situation, although I understand in the US that ruling was clarified later to be more nuanced.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#62

Post by alkonaut »

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…

My expectation isn't that a US tech company would break local law. It's that it would get out of market where it would otherwise be forced to do things that doesn't agree with some fundamental values of the company.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#63

Post by hesarenu »

aravindet wrote: post #18
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

Opindia is a well-known source of right-wing disinformation. From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpIndia > OpIndia is an Indian right-wing news portal founded in 2014 by Rahul Raj and Kumar Kamal. The website has published fake news and anti-Muslim commentary on multiple occasions, including a 2020 incident in which it falsely claimed that a Hindu boy was sacrificed in a Bihar mosque. > OpIndia is dedicated to critici…

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

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#64

Post by paxys »

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…

How is Twitter going to fight exactly? They can be banned nationwide (and local employees can face charges) with one order from the central government, and no court can help them. Same happened to TikTok last year.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#65

Post by hesarenu »

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…

So how i can view it to see if those are what the govt claims?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#66

Post by 0xmohit »

The government believes that hiding data is the answer to the problem.

> “It’s a complete massacre of data,” said Bhramar Mukherjee, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan who has been following India closely. “From all the modeling we’ve done, we believe the true number of deaths is two to five times what is being reported.” [0]

A related comment [1] on censorship in India.

[0] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/24/world/asia/india-coronavi...

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26928462

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#67

Post by hunter-2 »

gowthamgts12 wrote: post #46
hunter-2 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Thanks, updated it with the correct one.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#68

Post by holler »

cigaser wrote: post #59
Kaze404 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

This network would actually bring MORE moderation. People could subscribe to moderation filters similar way as in adblock. Antinazi, antiantifa, antilgbtq, anti-jehowa-witness... No extremism, just nice business and technical discussion. If some filter curator fails, you just replace its filter with another one.

what stops a "centralized" network from implementing the same thing?

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#69

Post by plank_time »

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…

Then why are people shitting over Google for attempting to created a censored search engine for China? I think the project was called Dragonfly.

Re: Twitter is blocking tweets that criticize the Indian government

#70

Post by smt88 »

op03 wrote: post #60
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…

All this is built on the terrible assumption that Social Media is critical to solving complex problems of society. All they do is dump waste amounts of shit on the plates of decision makers and then crucify them for problems no one can solve or have capacities to solve only badly. People think this is a great way to take out buffons like Modi or Trump. But the truth is such systems will take out anyone propped up esp…

I don't think social media is inherently bad. It's just easy to weaponize it given enough resources.

If people continue to believe that public posts on Twitter and Facebook accurately reflect reality, and it's possible for governments to silently (or not silently!) censor those platforms, then social media becomes an incredibly effective tool for propaganda.

My personal solution is not to use any public social medium (places where I consume posts from anonymous strangers) except HN. Unfortunately that solution can't scale.

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