Social-Media
In India, Twitter has blocked posts critical of Narendra Modi's Covid-19 response.
At the behest of the Indian government, Twitter has taken down many tweets about Covid-19, including those that were critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of a brutal second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a statement on Sunday that it had asked Twitter (TWTR), Facebook (FB), and other social media sites to delete about 100 posts "in light of the misuse of social media platforms by some users to spread false or misleading information."
Such users were accused of inciting "panic" about the new Covid-19 wave by "using irrelevant, outdated, and out of context photos or visuals, communally sensitive messages, and misinformation about Covid-19 protocols," according to the study.
Some of these accounts were urging people not to wear masks or inciting hate "by inciting religious passions," according to the release, which included screenshots of censored posts from Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
Following the Indian government's appeal, Twitter withheld some messages, according to an emailed statement to CNN Company.
"When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law," the Twitter statement said. "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. In all cases, we notify the account holder directly so they're aware that we've received a legal order pertaining to the account," the statement added.
Facebook declined to comment.
Tweets from the opposition are being blocked.
According to Lumen database, a Harvard University project that monitors requests to delete online material, the government made a request to Twitter on April 23 under the Information Technology Act of 2000.
Although some of the tweets that were subject to the request were withheld in India, they were made available to users outside the country. Opposition politicians blame Modi for the disastrous Covid-19 wave, according to the posts.
"India recording over 2 [hundred thousand] cases everyday, shortage of vaccines, shortage of medicines, increasing number of deaths ... healthcare system is collapsing...!" said member of parliament Revanth Reddy in one of the removed tweets, along with the hashtag #ModiMadeDisaster.
In another withheld tweet, Moloy Ghatak, an opposition party leader in the state of West Bengal, wrote: "India will never forgive PM @narendramodi for underplaying the corona situation in the country and letting so many people die due to mismanagement. At a time when India is going through a health crisis, PM chose to export millions of vaccine to other nations." He used a hashtag in Hindi #ModiHataoDeshBachao, which means "Remove Modi, save the country."
This isn't the first time Twitter has been implicated in India's anti-dissent campaign. As farmers protested the Modi government's new farming laws in February, Twitter temporarily suspended several accounts at the government's request, but later reinstated them after a public outcry.
On social media, users have been posting photos of bodies lying in morgues and burning in outdoor crematoriums in recent weeks, as they criticize the Modi government's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to a CNN tally of statistics from the Indian Ministry of Health, India announced 352,991 new cases of coronavirus on Monday, taking the number to more than 17.3 million cases.
According to a CNN count of figures from John Hopkins University, India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, has added over 300,000 new cases per day for the fifth day in a row, the largest number of cases in a single day anywhere in the world.
The death toll in the country continues to rise, with 2,812 deaths confirmed on Monday, marking the tenth consecutive day of rising figures.
