NEW DELHI – Twitter held on when the Indian government last week demanded that the social media platform take down hundreds of bills that the government criticized for its actions during protests by angry farmers.
On Wednesday, under threat of imprisonment for his local employees, Twitter conceded.
The San Francisco-based company said it had permanently blocked more than 500 accounts and killed an unspecified number of other people within India after the government accused them of inciting remarks about Narendra Modi, the country’s prime minister. . Twitter said it acted after the government issued a non-compliance notice, which experts say could put the company’s local employees at risk of being detained for up to seven years.
In a blogpos published on Wednesday, Twitter said it was not taking any action on the accounts belonging to media organizations, journalists, activists or politicians, saying it did not believe the orders to block it were “in line with the Indian legislation. ” He also said he was exploring the options under local laws and requested a meeting with a senior government official.
“We are still committed to protecting the health of the conversation on Twitter,” he said, “and strongly believe that the tweets should flow.”
The brewing conflict in India is a particularly clear example of Twitter’s challenge to support its self-proclaimed principles that support freedom of speech. The platform has been caught up in an intense debate about the extraordinary role of social media in politics, and the growing demand in many countries to tame the influence.
In the United States, Twitter was pushed into the middle of the clash last month after it permanently suspended the account of Donald J. Trump, the former president, for encouraging protests in Washington, DC, which became violent. In that case, he exercised his right under U.S. laws that give social platforms the ability to deliver police speeches about their services.
But in India, Twitter is blocking accounts according to the government’s demand. The Indian government is run by the Bharatiya Janata party of Mr. Modi controls, and becomes increasingly aggressive to stifle the difference of opinion. It arrested activists and journalists and put media organizations under pressure to go to their line. It has also cut off access to mobile internet in difficult areas.
Amid intensified competition with China, the Indian government has blocked a number of programs owned by Chinese companies, including TikTok, the short video network best known for its videos of teens and teenagers dancing.
The government has also taken a tougher stance towards its critics on social media. Under Indian law, Twitter’s executives from India could face up to seven years in prison and a fine if the company does not comply with the government’s order to remove content it says is subversive or a threat to public order and national security is not.
The country’s judiciary has increasingly sided with the government and to Mr. Modi has been given a series of political victories, say advocates and human rights activists. In November 2019, the Supreme Court of India ruled in favor of Hindus in a decades-old dispute over a sacred site in Ayodhya that has been disputed by Muslims. It also postponed the lifting of restrictions on the internet and movement in the controversial Jammu and Kashmir region to a government committee.
Digital rights groups say government pressure on Twitter amounts to censorship.
“The power used to ban smartphone apps is the same power used to command Twitter to take down bills and order Internet outages,” said Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation.
India represents a potentially large growth market for global internet businesses, with its 1.3 billion people, expanding internet access and an ambitious middle class. The government’s stronger hand in the business complicates the prospects.
According to a company, the country ranks at number 5 in terms of requests to remove Twitter content transparency report, to Japan, Russia, South Korea and Turkey. The country has sent nearly 5,500 legal claims, including court orders, to block content. It also sent approximately 5,900 requests for access to users’ personal information between January 2012 and June 2020.
This involvement came to light last year when a prominent public prosecutor, Prashant Bhushan, wrote tweets criticizing the Indian Supreme Court’s role in eroding freedoms in the country. Twitter removed the tweets in question. Advocates and advocates for digital rights at the time said the company sets a dangerous legal standard. Twitter declined to comment Wednesday and said it was tweeting Mr. Bhushan removed according to legal regulations.
India’s protesting farmers have opened a new front in the government’s efforts to tame social media.
Mr. Modi has been embroiled in a month-long dispute with the country’s farmers over his government’s market – friendly farm laws. Farmers, many from the northwestern Punjab state, have set up camp in areas around the capital of New Delhi. At the end of January, the protests became violent after farmers entered the city – many on tractors – and clashed with police in some places.
Last week, the Modi government asked Twitter to remove more than 1,000 additional accounts related to the protests. It is claimed that many people are run by overseas sympathizers of the Khalistan movement, an effort that has been more active in recent decades, which has required members of the Sikh religion to break away and form their own country. The government has claimed that some are supported by Pakistan, India’s neighbor.
Twitter initially suspended some of the accounts last week, including the report by The Caravan, a narrative magazine that carefully discussed the protests. It then reinstated the bills after the government was informed that it considered the content to be acceptable freedom of speech.
The behavior of the Indian government received worldwide attention last week when pop singer Rihanna tweeted again an article about officials blocking internet access to parts of New Delhi during the farmers’ protests there. Greta Thunberg, the environmental activist, also tweeted about the protests and share a link to what she called a toolkit, which contains discussion points that supported the protesters, as well as information on how to work with others with a similar sentiment. Mr. Modi’s supporters grabbed the link and said it shows that the forces from outside support the farmers.
The Indian government also appeared to show on Twitter on Wednesday that the company needs the country more than vice versa. India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the government arm that pressed Twitter to take down material, posted its response on Twitter’s blog post to a competing service in India called Koo.
A virtual meeting between Twitter executives and government officials was underway Wednesday night.
Devdutta Mukhopadhyay, a lawyer who deals with issues of freedom of speech in India, said Twitter was running a ‘fine balance’.
“For the companies, it’s a double bond,” she said. Mukhopadhyay said. “They want their services to be available in the country, but they also do not want to be subject to censorship that does not meet international human rights standards because they are arbitrary or disproportionate.”
She said Twitter should push back and “use its influence to show the same courage as when Donald Trump’s account was blocked.”
“They should not let it go just because it is a developing country.”
Mujib Mashal reported.