‘Free Speech’ Twitter Is Now Globally Blocking Posts Critical Of The Modi Government
from the the-twitter-files-on-this-will-be-rich dept
A few weeks ago we wrote about how Elon Musk’s Twitter was now blocking tweets in India at the request of the government. As we noted, there’s a lot of important history here. India had demanded such blocking in early 2021 and the old regime at Twitter had pushed back strongly on it. After fighting about it, Twitter agreed to geoblock some tweets, but said it would not agree to do that for tweets from journalists, activists, or politicians.
The company also filed a lawsuit claiming that the content removal demands were an abuse of power by the Modi government. This lawsuit is still ongoing.
Of course, in the interim, Elon Musk became the owner of Twitter, and while he has kept the lawsuit going (for now), he had complained about Twitter’s lawsuit when it first happened.
When we wrote that story a few weeks ago about Elon’s Twitter agreeing to block accounts of journalists, politicians, and activists, some of Musk’s staunchest defenders in our comments insisted that the article was unfair, because Musk was doing the same thing that Twitter had done. Except that’s false. The old Twitter explicitly refused to apply the geoblocks to journalists, activists, or politicians.
Either way, Musk’s Twitter has now taken it up a notch. Not only is it geoblocking such accounts, in some cases, it has now instituted a global block. That is, Musk’s Twitter is willing to allow the Modi government to censor his critics globally, rather than just in India. The first known victim of this is Saurav Das, an investigative journalist in India.
As free speech activist, and occasional Techdirt contributor, Sarah McLaughlin notes, allowing India to dictate global speech rules is “a worst case scenario for free speech and content moderation.”
It’s also the kind of thing that again calls into question the (always silly) claims from people that Elon Musk’s focus with Twitter has anything to do with a principled stance on free speech. That’s never been true, but this only serves to emphasize that fact.
Meanwhile, Das is trying to find out why he’s been blocked, and has filed a Right to Information application with the government to find out why his tweets were blocked, and why they were blocked globally, but doesn’t seem hopeful that he’ll find out.
A Twitter that actually believed in free speech — and not Elon’s Musk’s encapsulation of free speech as “that which matches the law” — might want to step in and help Das. Somehow I doubt that’s going to happen.
Filed Under: censorship, elon musk, free speech, geoblocking, global block, india, narendra modi, saurav das
Companies: twitter
Comments on “‘Free Speech’ Twitter Is Now Globally Blocking Posts Critical Of The Modi Government”
I wonder which one of our trolls will jump in here and defend Musk as a beacon of the values of free speech and anti-censorship.
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Matthew seems to have called more of his insurrectionist buddies to shit on every Twitter-related post, though most of them don’t have his staying power.
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How about just… not goading the trolls on? Do we need another 200+ comment troll-feeding frenzy?
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To date, I hadn’t noticed they were any bastions of sanity or restraint. They don’t need a reason; they are simply looking for an excuse.
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And usually, the article is merely enough fig-leaf to jump in.
People pollute the comment section for far less, mind.
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Re: Ackchually
I am a first amendment litigant, and ultimately the choice of disobeying a court order == jail, and while perhaps elon musk has the balls to face criminal arrest, that doesn’t mean that his indian employees do.
To blame Musk for what the government is forcing him to do, is almost comical beyond belief however, while at the same time sanctioning the US government doing the same.
I do not remember your specific post history, but if you were one of the Elon Musk “twitter files” apologists, then at least my views are more consistent than yours.
Also I must add that its entirely possible that Indian people are just as censorious as American people, but that Americans might disagree with the Indians with regards to only which content they want censored or not.
How do you feel about the practice of public self immolation (setting themselves on fire) for religious purposes?
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Musk made a decision to block certain tweets from being viewed outside of the jurisdiction of a given legal order. So far as I know, the power of the Indian government ends at the borders of India. What right does India have to tell a U.S. citizen that they shouldn’t be able to view tweets that criticize the Indian government?
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What right does the United States have to forbid extraterritorial sexual exploitation of children? The answer is that governments can pass any laws they want, and punish people in their territory any way they want. If India wants to threaten local Twitter employees with arrest if Twitter does not ban a tweet globally, they can do that. You don’t have to like it, and if Twitter doesn’t like it enough, they can fire all their Indian employees and leave the country, but until then, the threats of the Indian government are not toothless.
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Musk caving in to those demands is a sign of cowardice that makes him look like someone who does the bidding of fascists. That doesn’t jive with the “free speech warrior” image he loves to project.
Re: Re: Re:3
Looks, Stephen?
He IS a coward and a simp for dictators.
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Re: Re: Re:4 Elon's BBC interview
“No, look, if we have a choice of either our people go to prison, or we comply with the laws, we’ll comply with the laws. Same goes for the BBC,” Musk responds.
Clayton does not ask Musk for a clarification but moves on to a question that led Musk to say that he was not the CEO of Twitter, but that his dog was.
In February, a month after the release of the Modi documentary, Income Tax officials carried out surveys in two BBC offices at New Delhi and Mumbai, allegedly to investigate issues related to international taxation and transfer pricing of BBC subsidiary companies.
Press bodies in India and abroad condemned the raid. The UK government said it was closely monitoring the situation and BBC itself said it was prepared to fully comply.
https://thewire.in/tech/elon-musk-bbc-interview-india-it-rules
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@Stephen T. Stone
“What right does India have to tell a U.S. citizen that they shouldn’t be able to view tweets that criticize the Indian government?”
I could ask the same of the American government couldn’t I.
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No, you couldn’t.
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Re: Re: Re:3
Yes, you could.
The US government demanded many websites delete / ban posts globally leaking the US intelligence documents, including embarrassing war assessments, and CIA agents in the field.
“This is information that has no business in the public domain. It has no business, if you don’t mind me saying, on the pages of, on the front pages of newspapers or online television. It is not intended for public consumption and it should not be out there.” –John Kirby
Re: Re: Re:4
And then you moved the goal-post to shore up your argument.
Tell us you understand the difference between criticizing the government and an effort to remove supposedly secret intelligence documents?
Re: Re: Re: I'd quit Twitter over this...
…except that I never used Twitter. Damn! But I would have quit Twitter anyway before now.
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Ah yes, Revenge porn man.
Nah, the worst India can do is kick Twitter out. I mean, Twitter did oppose these things before Elon took over.
All 8 billion humans on the planet are censorious fucks, yourself and myself included. And while they technically are in different regions, they all tend to agree that censorship should be the norm. Some just like being open about being assholes.
And I believe all agree that revenge porn is bad.
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Tesla want access to the Indian market and those sweet, sweet subsidies for electric vehicles Tesla keep being denied for not producing there. Censorship of Modi’s critics is a good way to sweeten the pot and get loopholes created.
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„To blame Musk for what the government is forcing him to do, is almost comical beyond belief“
HE put up that standard! No one forced Musk into declaring himself the greatest free speech warrior since the invention of the first amendment. People have endlessly pointed out that his declared views would bring him into financial and/or legal trouble, and YOU guys insisted that Elon the Wise would obviously defend free speech to the death.
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How do you feel about the practice of public self immolation (setting themselves on fire) for religious purposes?
I find it comical, just like believing in an imaginary person in the first place.
If only ‘christians’ in the US would take the hint and do the same…
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One?
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All of them, Katy
Well, well, well.
I guess Twitter should be considered a government news outlet now.
Starting with India, then China, and Saudi Arabia once the inevitable boosting of propaganda happens.
I wonder if the global block is due to not having the people and/or knowledge around anymore to do it per country.
Oh well that is going to be fun when the Chinese, Russians, Saudis and and a whole gaggle of tin pot dictators are going to demand the same.
And the party will really start when he makes an exception for a Nazi somewhere when the Germans ask for a country block/ban/removal for something that said Nazi wrote on Twitter.
Musk has taken a dangerous step, in that other Authoritarian leaders are going to demand that he does the same for them,
Wait… could somebody help me comprehend what’s happening here….
Who seems to be globally censoring speech?
And for what reason, too woke?
Just waiting for all the trolls to start chiming in.
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The best help I can offer you is to tell you to go back to junior school and learn to read English, as the answers to your questions are in the article.
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The best help I can offer you is to learn to understand the difference between genuine questions and sarcasm.
I am guessing that most people understood that as nothing more than troll bait.
So maybe you should be the one to go back to at least grade school to learn some critical thinking skills.
i still think it’s funny how he instantly rolls over for these requests but getting a dmca takedown? foh!!!
Non-US government: Jump! Elon: Already in the air.
Just look at all the free speech that’s flourishing under Elon’s reign of the company, why it’s a never ending stream of decisions that highlight again and against how censorious and happy to bend over backwards to the government the previous Twitter was, quite unlike the bastion of free speech it is now.
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Maybe if someone posted a pic of Modi’s dick, Musk would refuse to take it down.
Free Speech Absolutist noun: Someone who has never supported nor understood the concept of free speech.
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Ah like someone who is an absolutist with regard to alcohol may never have even tasted anything with any alcohol in it.
Now I get it. Thank you.
We should all be extremely grateful that Elon Musk wasn’t born in this country, given our propensity for electing flamboyant jackasses like him to our highest public office.
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Nah, the natural-born citizen clause is xenophobic bullshit.
I wouldn’t want Musk to be president, but that doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with preventing him from running because of where he was born.
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To be fair, A good chunk of the Republican Party are natural-born and they’re all traitors to America…
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