Centre’s New Tool for Tyranny—Twitter

With the third largest user base and the highest number of government information requests on Twitter, the Indian government has bagged yet another trophy on its way towards tyranny. In response to an RTI requesting the Union government to provide the number of requests it made to Twitter for suspension of accounts and the compliance rate, the government turned down the request citing ‘national security concerns’. In an earlier RTI, the government refused to share the minutes of their meeting with the social media giant. Twitter, on the other hand, released its Transparency Report signalling that there is a cause for national concern.

Transparency: Govt refrains, Twitter offers

In early February 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) served Twitter several blocking orders under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act. Out of these, two emergency requests were complied to temporarily but the action was reversed when Twitter found the content consistent with the Indian law.

Soon after, Twitter was served with a non-compliance notice despite a list of measures—like reducing visibility of certain hashtags to prevent them from trending, suspending and blocking over 500 accounts and withholding content in India—taken to curb hate and violence during tense times. This was the time when the government and mainstream media were alleging that farmers’ protests were ‘led by Khalistani and Pakistani forces’.

Some Prominent Accounts

Popular accounts of journalists, media entities, politicians and activists like those of Caravan (an investigative news outlet), Sanjukta Basu (political commentator), Kisan Ekta Morcha (coalition of farmers’ unions) were temporarily blocked in February 2021 and then restored as that “would violate their fundamental right to free expression under Indian law”.

Lumen, an independent research project which champions the cause of transparency, backs this information in its database.

In June, political cartoonist Manjul received a Twitter notice informing him that “Indian law enforcement” agencies have claimed that his content “violates the law(s) of India”. The tweet in question critiqued the government on their manhandling of the second-wave of Covid-19. In a response to this move, he said “No government likes criticism, but this government suppresses it.”

In August, the official handles of Congress and Rahul Gandhi were temporarily withheld. Rahul Gandhi had tweeted in Hindi, “Parents’ tears are saying only one thing — their daughter, the daughter of this country, deserves justice. And I am with them on this path to justice” with a photograph of him meeting the parents of a minor Dalit girl who was raped and murdered in Delhi.

The Bigger Picture

“India submitted the most government information requests during this reporting period, accounting for 25% of the global volume, and 15% of the global accounts specified” read Twitter’s latest Transparency Report.

Statistics show that 6,076 information requests were filed in 2020, affecting 14,108 accounts, but the compliance rate was remarkably low at 0.8%. The report also revealed that for 19 legal orders received for content removal by the government, affecting over 229 accounts, the compliance rate was a little over 60%.

While Twitter and Tweeters struggle to strike a balance on how best to practice the fundamental right of freedom of expression, only time will tell if they succeed.

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