On Monday, Twitter temporarily blocked people in India from accessing several accounts of activists, political commentators, a popular movie star and a leading investigative journal, the Caravan, commissioned by the country’s government. One thing all had in common: it was critical of the Indian Hindu nationalist prime minister, Narendra Modi. Twitter restored the accounts more than six hours later, telling government officials that the tweets and accounts were speechless and newsworthy.
The move comes during a suppression of differences of opinion in India and raises questions about the role that American technology companies are playing there. In recent weeks, authorities in India have filed resurrection cases against prominent journalists for reporting on the protests of farmers contesting the Modi government. Police in New Delhi, the capital of India, arrested two journalists over the weekend, one of whom is still in custody.
Last week, calls to “shoot” protest-ridden farmers on Twitter for hours tended, as thousands of tweets encouraging police brutality flooded the platform.
Some of the most prominent accounts that temporarily blocked Twitter in the country included those who tweeted updates of the farmers’ protests, in addition to the Caravan.
“The staff of the Caravan believes that Twitter’s decision to withhold our official account is the latest in a long list of targeted attacks mounted on the publication to pursue fearlessly important stories,” Vinod K. said. Jose, the editor-in-chief of the magazine, and BuzzFeed News filed a lawsuit against one of the journalists who filed charges against him last week.
After the Caravan returned to Twitter, tweeted it“Our account has been restored. It is clearer today than ever before that true media need true allies. We thank our readers, subscribers and contributors for their unwavering support. ”
In a statement, Twitter said: ‘Many countries have laws that may apply to tweets and / or Twitter account content. In our sustained effort to make our services available to people everywhere if we have a proper scope of an authorized body, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in a particular country from time to time. Transparency is essential for protecting freedom of expression, so we have a notice policy for withheld content. Upon receipt of requests to withhold content, we will notify the relevant account holders immediately (unless we are prohibited from doing so, eg if we receive a court order under seal). “
Twitter withholds tweets and accounts, even in the United States, if it receives a valid and proper scope from an authorized entity ‘, according to the company website. These tweets or accounts are usually visible in the rest of the world. The company says that ‘users are affected immediately, unless we are prohibited from doing so’, and publishes the requests on Lumen, a Harvard University project.
But people whose accounts in India have been temporarily blocked said Twitter did not notify them before they acted.
“They did not contact me before I acted against my account,” Sanjukta Basu, a political commentator whose account withheld Twitter, told BuzzFeed News.
Jose said Twitter did not notify the magazine before blocking the account, and only heard from the company an hour after the block. “Twitter did not disclose where the legal removal claim came from,” he said.
BuzzFeed News understands that the legal order of the Indian IT Ministry comes under a section of the law that allows the government to order the removal of content that is considered a threat to national security, and which companies like Twitter prevent the disclosure of account blocking information. or a tweet. The IT ministry did not want to issue an official statement.
Twitter confirmed that the orders came from the Indian IT Ministry but said it would not upload to the Lumen database as the accounts were unblocked.
The company is caught between local laws and global human rights standards.
“Internet platforms must ensure that any action they take in response to government orders regarding the removal of content respects international human rights standards,” said Raman Jit Singh Chima, senior international adviser and director of Asia Pacific Policy at Access Now, an organization non-profit, Internet lawyer, told BuzzFeed News. “They need to combat orders that are overboard, or that explicitly seek to suppress media organizations from reporting.”
This could mean taking, even temporarily, actions that seem unthinkable in other countries – actions that have led to sharp criticism.
“Can you imagine @twitter summarily snatching the New Yorker or Atlantic Ocean account after a legal letter?” tweeted Nicholas Dawes, executive editor of the City and a former director of Human Rights Watch. “Applying human rights standards to global content moderation can be difficult, but it’s the job they’re committed to.”