New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government last week ordered Twitter to block over 50 tweets mostly critical of its response to the Covid pandemic. Among the tweets blocked were a few by Congress national spokesperson Pawan Khera, West Bengal minister Moloy Ghatak, and Congress MP from Telangana Revanth Reddy, among others.
Twitter said it notified the account holders of its action taken in response to a “legal request” from the government.
According to details Twitter has shared with Lumen database, a project by Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, the government had asked the microblogging site to block 32 tweets on 22 April, and 21 tweets on 23 April.
The Lumen project collects and analyses different kinds of “requests to remove material from the web”. These include removal requests that are “both legitimate and questionable” to educate the public and to facilitate research.
The details shared by Twitter about the latest requests from the government included links to the blocked tweets.
On 22 April, India had recorded 3.14 lakh new Covid cases in the past 24 hours — it was for the first time that the daily count had crossed the 3-lakh mark in any country.
ThePrint approached Press Information Bureau official Monika, who is in-charge of the information technology ministry’s media communications, through a WhatsApp message for a comment on the matter, but there had been no reply till the time of publishing this report. This report will be updated when a response is received.
A source in the ministry, however, told ThePrint that the committee appointed to review blocking requests had met on 23 April to review the posts. The requests were not limited to Covid-related content, but they also looked at “disinformation”, and content that could lead to “incitement of violence”, the source added.
The source also said no particular politician or party was targeted, adding that the committee does not consider what content should be blocked based on who posted it, but only sees if it can be blocked under the IT Act. “The law is the law for everyone.”
In its response to ThePrint’s request for a comment, a Twitter spokesperson emailed the company’s statement, which read: “When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law.”
It added: “If the content violates Twitter’s Rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.”
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Tweets that were blocked
Besides tweets by Khera, Ghatak and Reddy, several other posts were also “withheld in India” on the request of the government.
The government asked to block a tweet each from the unverified accounts of Abdul Majeed, the national general secretary of Social Democratic Party of India, Popular Front of India chairman O.M.A. Salam, and former PFI chairman E.M. Abdul Rahiman, besides some by media personalities such as ABP News editor Pankaj Jha, former TV journalist now filmmaker Vinod Kapri, and the director of Netflix show ‘She’, Avinash Das.
Khera told ThePrint that he would move court against this.
“I am taking legal recourse to ask the Govt of India what’s illegal about this tweet,” he said in a WhatsApp message, when asked for a comment.
Khera’s now-blocked tweet, posted in Hindi on 12 April, said the Tablighi Jamaat collective was condemned for their gathering when there were fewer cases in India, while now when there are more cases in the country, there is a “collective silence” on the baths (shahi snaan) at Maha Kumbh, and on election rallies.
Khera’s tweets had been shared over 3,800 times and had more than 11,000 likes.
Moloy Ghatak’s tweet said “India will never forgive” PM Modi for “underplaying” the pandemic and letting people “die due to mismanagement”.
Reddy’s tweet using hashtag “#ModiMadeDisaster” spoke of how the healthcare system is “collapsing”.
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Most of the other tweets now blocked were critical of the Kumbh Mela happening at a time when Covid cases were rising, while other tweets were critical of the government’s management of the pandemic.
A tweet from the verified account of Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), which describes itself as the “largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the US”, has been blocked too. The tweet showing a picture from Vice media read: “Tablighi Jamaat was ‘corona jihad’, but no one’s said a word about the Kumbh Mela with millions of attendees”.
In its response through a Twitter message, an IAMC spokesperson said: “While Covid patients are literally gasping for breath, the government’s alacrity in pressuring Twitter to block tweets critical of its handling of the crisis shows the administration’s moral compass continues to point in a direction, that is shamelessly self-serving.”
Mirza Saaib Beg, a Kashmiri lawyer according to the Twitter bio, had posted a photo of what looks like a note on a patient and speaks of how a patient does not want to be treated by a “Muslim” doctor.
“Covid-related Islamophobia observed in India over the last year is symptomatic of the consistent demonisation of Muslims and increasing hate speech that has lead to violence against Muslims. Refraining from addressing these incidents will only strengthen the prejudice further,” Beg told ThePrint via a Twitter message, when asked to comment.
Pieter Friedrich, whose tweet was blocked, acknowledged the action on Twitter with a screenshot of the email Twitter had sent to him. “The Government of India has officially complained about the Tweet” to Twitter, he wrote.
ABP news editor Jha said he would not make any comment on the issue.
ThePrint has also approached Ghatak, Reddy, SDPI’s Majeed, PFI and its former chairman Rahiman through WhatsApp, Twitter, email and Facebook, respectively, for their comments. This report will be updated when a response is received from them.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mazumdar)
Enthada
Why can the Modi govt not stomach the truth as to why we are in such critical state with no oxygen,no vaccines and no other healthcare,,
Its clear that both the BJP govts and the party with its infamous IT cell are moving fast to counter the real coverage of COVID crisis in the country. However, the carnage has hit the country hard and everyone now knows atleast someone else personally, who is affected. Modi can ban all the tweets and his godi media can do whatever spin they want to do. when the common man is so personally aggrieved, none of this spin will help putting a gloss over the criminal mismanagement, the utter incompetence and self obsession of the modi govt.
And its shameful that this doesnt stop. For eg. even as the carnage rolls on, and the govt is short of spending money on healthcare system, they are still going ahead with vanity projects like new parliament in delhi.
Good to see that the Govt is finally demonstrating its power.
India’s mortality rate is 7.2. (means 7.2 deaths per 1000 Population per year irrespective of covid)
1.3 billion/1000*7.2=9.36 Million per year –> 25643 deaths per day on an average.
Will crematoriums be overloaded with roughly 2700 deaths? It is govt who is actually spreading misinformation.
Congress leader Shashi Tharoor spread fake news of ex Lok Sabha’s speaker Sumitra Mahajan’s death. His Twitter account should also be locked during the pandameic.