India has made an emergency order to censor tweets critical of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 outbreak.
As cases hit world records, Twitter has withheld some of the tweets due to a legal appeal from the government. Per the government’s request at least 52 tweets were mentioned to be taken down including those with a significant follower count such as a lawmaker, a state minister, and a filmmaker.
India will never forgive PM @narendramodi for underplaying the corona situation in the country and letting so many people die due to mismanagement.
— Moloy Ghatak (@GhatakMoloy) April 20, 2021
At a time when India is going through a health crisis,PM chose to export millions of vaccine to other nations #ModiHataoDeshBachao pic.twitter.com/5sQRfT7kpB
The law cited in the government’s request was the Information Technology Act, 2000.
“When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law,” the Twitter spokeswoman said in an emailed statement.
Twitter stated that they have notified all users who have had posts take down – One user publicly shared the message from the platform.
The Government of India has officially complained about the Tweet above to Twitter. https://t.co/5IWedORyh8 pic.twitter.com/0D3Vf1EAO7
— Pieter Friedrich (@FriedrichPieter) April 23, 2021
Tim Hill told Ticker news the whole process is “angering the community who uses twitter.”
“This could mark a new era of how we deal with misinformation.”
This is not the first time we have seen censorship on Twitter as former President Donald Trump was banned permanently of Twitter due to “incitement of violence”.
This is one of the first instances of governments requesting removal of posts.
