India's information technology ministry asks social media companies to take down any content that refers to an “Indian variant” of the coronavirus
ReutersAditya Kalra
Context & Ripple Effects
The takedown request extends a pattern already visible this spring: weeks earlier, India's government ordered Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to remove dozens of posts critical of its pandemic handling — and the companies complied. The ministry has pressed platforms on content control before, including its 2018 demand that WhatsApp curb misinformation it tied to real-world violence.
First-order effects
Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter face another removal order from a government they have already shown they will obey on pandemic-related posts, putting their global speech policies directly against an Indian state instruction.
Second-order effects
Compliance sets a pricing-of-speech precedent other governments can cite: each platform that removes 'Indian variant' content makes it harder for any rival to refuse similar orders without ceding market access in India.
The trend: India is converting one-off content removal demands into permanent legal powers over what social media platforms may host about the government.
As an MP I am utterly taken aback by this latest example of executive overreach: https://m.dailyhunt.in/... Aside from the illegality of censorship, how does it help India's image to delete posts in this country that continue to be available abroad where GOI's writ does not run?
India asks social media firms to remove reference to ‘Indian variant’ of coronavirus https://www.reuters.com/... // WHO has had guidelines for 6+ years describing how to name new pathogens. The old system used geography (eg MERS) https://apps.who.int/... https://twitter.com/...
So, a thread with some context on the Government of India asking Twitter to remove the “Manipulated Media” tag on Sambit Patra's tweet. Story here: https://www.medianama.com/... 1. There's no official statement, no copy of the letter sent, but news agencies like ANI and PTI are 1…
Thread: Indian govt has written to social media platforms asking them to censor all posts which reference an “Indian variant” of coronavirus. Reuters story here: https://www.reuters.com/... Issues with this “request”: 1. Request, not order: it's worth noting that the MEITY has 1/
5. Has MEITY heard of the Streisand effect? What were they thinking? Now we're writing about what they wanted censored. Another attempt to distract people from the tragedy that is the Indian governments handling of COVID19? 6. India has China envy: It wants to exercise 7/
“requested” social media platforms to censor content which refers an Indian variant. Not an order, because there's no law which allows MEITY to ORDER platforms to censor such content. I don't think social media platforms will comply with an unlawful request like this. 2/
4. Mass censorship of news: This censorship request impinges on the freedom of the press. News publications from across the globe have referred to this version of COVID19 as the Indian variant: from the BBC, Al Jazeera, Telegraph, Sky News, Voice of America, Guardian...many. 5/
Removing news items from the platforms = mass censorship of news. Distribution of news is just as protected as news itself. Will this thread be censored? What about news articles which mention MEITY's request to censor posts that mention ‘Indian variant’? 6/
3. What are social media platforms? We now have a definition as per the IT Rules, but its so broad that it could include Slack, Microsoft Teams, google docs or even dropbox. 4/ https://twitter.com/...