Twitter admitted on Saturday that it has complied with a request from the Indian government to censor tweets from accounts that have been critical of Prime Minister Modi and his administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic:
COVID is ravaging India. Now, Twitter admits it is working with the Indian government to censor criticism of the government's mishandling of the pandemic. Read @JonathanTurley https://t.co/1o70AIh63R pic.twitter.com/QyG1d9wWxT
— Byron York (@ByronYork) April 25, 2021
Some of the censored accounts are of local legislators:
The Indian government asked social media platform Twitter to take down dozens of tweets, including some by local legislators, that were critical of India’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, as cases of COVID-19 again hit a world record. https://t.co/v7A7pmubGQ
— Al Jazeera News (@AJENews) April 25, 2021
This is a legit “holy s*it” moment, especially as it comes at a time when COVID-19 is out of control in India:
Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets largely critical of India’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected accounts include Revanth Reddy, a sitting MP; Moloy Ghatak, a West Bengal minister; and actor Vineet Kumar Singh. https://t.co/ia7prGLWQ8
— MediaNama.com (@medianama) April 24, 2021
How does Twitter defend this move?
Remarkably India's government is finding time to ask Twitter to censor posts critical of its Covid response. Twitter is complying https://t.co/XHukgGVPbB
— michael safi (@safimichael) April 24, 2021
Jonathan Turley, rightly so, ripped Twitter over it, saying “it could cost hundreds of thousands of lives”:
Keep in mind that this information could protect lives. It is not “fake news” but efforts by journalists and others to disclose failures by the government that could cost hundreds of thousands of lives. https://t.co/n0gmoMqn4P
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 25, 2021
And:
…Twitter is now unabashedly and unapologetically a corporate censor. The question is whether the public will remain silent or, as some, actually embrace the new Orwellian order of “robust content modification.”
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) April 25, 2021
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