Twitter complies with an emergency order from India and hides 50+ tweets, some of which were critical of Modi's handling of COVID-19, from users in the country
You're reading it here first: Twitter has complied with government requests to censor 52 tweets that mostly criticised India's handling …
MediaNama Aroon Deep
Context & Ripple Effects
India's request formed part of a wider platform intervention: the government said Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter had been directed to remove dozens of pandemic-related posts, with the companies complying in the broader cross-platform takedown.
Later coverage shows Twitter's India moderation becoming more consequential: it blocked 122 accounts and posts for Indian users after legal orders in 2023, while a separate legal demand was linked to an apparent global removal of a journalist's post.
First-order effects
- Indian users lose access to more than 50 tweets, including posts critical of Modi's COVID-19 response, while Twitter implements the emergency order through country-level withholding.
- India demonstrates that an emergency request can secure rapid compliance from a major social platform during a public-health crisis.
Second-order effects
- Facebook and Instagram face the same immediate pressure to comply, since the government's order extended beyond Twitter to multiple platforms.
- Twitter's choice to withhold content for users in India establishes a practical response model for subsequent Indian legal orders, rather than contesting each request publicly.
Third-order effects
- Repeated compliance can make geographic blocking the default operating model for platforms serving India, concentrating practical control over local political speech in government takedown processes.
- The later apparent move from India-only withholding to a globally removed post indicates that the scope of platform compliance may broaden when legal demands are applied more aggressively.
The trend: India's platform governance is moving toward recurring, legally driven content controls that platforms implement through regional—and potentially wider—visibility restrictions.
Related: Twitter · India · COVID-19 · India orders platforms to remove pandemic posts · Twitter's apparent global removal after an Indian demand
Related Coverage
- Twitter censored tweets critical of India's handling of the pandemic at its government's request The Verge · Kim Lyons
- View article The Verge
- Twitter Is Blocking Tweets That Criticize How The Indian Government Has Handled The Pandemic BuzzFeed News · Pranav Dixit
- View article On my Om
- Govt asks Twitter to block some tweets critical of its Covid handling, Twitter complies partially India Today
- Twitter censors COVID-related tweets of MLA, Editor and more after Indian Government order BGR India · Amritanshu Mukherjee
- Twitter Takes Down Tweets Critical Of India's Covid Response After Govt Orders Inc42 Media · Deepsekhar Choudhury
- India Orders Twitter to Remove Tweets Criticizing the Government's Handling of the Pandemic MUO · Jessibelle Garcia
- Govt asks Twitter, other social media platforms to remove misleading posts around Covid-19 Times of India
- Twitter removes over 50 posts on govt. orders; majority related to COVID-19 The Hindu
- On Centre's request, Twitter takes down 52 tweets criticising India's handling of pandemic: Report Scroll.in
- Govt orders removal of posts on Covid-19, terms it ‘inflammatory content’ Hindustan Times
- Twitter removes, curbs access to over 50 posts flagged by government The Indian Express · ENS Economic
- India orders Twitter to remove tweets criticizing country's COVID-19 response Neowin · Anmol Mehrotra
- Twitter removed tweets that criticized India's COVID-19 response after the country's government asked it to do so Insider · Connor Perrett
- India orders Twitter to pull tweets criticizing its COVID-19 response Engadget
- Twitter reportedly hid tweets critical of Indian government's COVID efforts Mashable · Jack Morse
- Indian government asks Twitter to take down criticism of its COVID-19 response New York Post · Kathianne Boniello
- India orders Twitter to take down tweets critical of its coronavirus handling TechCrunch · Manish Singh
- India asks Twitter to take down some tweets critical of its COVID-19 handling Reuters · Kanishka Singh
Discussion
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@aroondeep
Aroon Deep
on x
BREAKING: As the second wave raged, the government ordered Twitter to take down tweets criticising its handling of the pandemic. Twitter took down tweets by a sitting MP, MLA, an actor, and two filmmakers, among many others: https://twitter.com/...
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@mollyjongfast
Molly Jong-Fast
on x
Last week, howard Dean told me that Modhi was “trump with brains.” https://www.theverge.com/...
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@pranavdixit
@pranavdixit
on x
Last week, senior @Twitter executives called India a “priority market” when they hired a new engineering director. Days later, the company buckled and blocked tweets critical of the government's handling of the pandemic. https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/... https://twi…
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@kharibiskut
Sumitra Badrinathan
on x
the government of India has the time and capacity identify tweets to be censored. no big deal about all the tweets begging for oxygen, ventilators, hospital beds, medicines. https://twitter.com/...
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@pnjaban
Harmeet K. Dhillon
on x
Of course they did. Twitter is also censoring tweets about India's farmer protests, the largest ongoing protests in the world right now. The farmers are protesting law changes they feel benefit large corporations over small family farmers. Rightfully so! https://twitter.com/...
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@evacide
Eva
on x
Check out Twitter playing Repression's Little Helper and taking down tweets criticizing the Indian government's COVID response. https://twitter.com/...
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@dosasandroti
Nrs
on x
As @kapskom mentioned, the government serves the supreme leader while ordinary Indians are left to die. https://twitter.com/...
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@slpng_giants
@slpng_giants
on x
Really seems like these platforms aren't as into free speech as they say they are. https://twitter.com/...
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@raheelk
Raheel Khursheed
on x
Hi @jack @vijaya - The Govt of India is having @TwitterIndia remove Tweets critical of it's absolutely disastrous handling of the Covid crisis. Hope you can hold your ground & restore the content removed/withdrawn. https://twitter.com/...
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@pranavdixit
@pranavdixit
on x
As India's coronavirus pandemic burns out of control, the country's government is cracking down — on social media. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/ ...
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@sanjanah
Sanjana Hattotuwa
on x
“Finally, #Facebook's human rights commitments will be tested most not in the US or Europe but in significant markets like #India and the Philippines with authoritarian leaders.” | It's not just #Twitter that will have to face up to Modi's Govt. https://www.ihrb.org/... https://t…
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@dhume
Sadanand Dhume
on x
You can criticize the Indian government for its Covid management, but no slacking at all when it comes to image management. https://www.medianama.com/... https://twitter.com/...
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@safimichael
Michael Safi
on x
Remarkably India's government is finding time to ask Twitter to censor posts critical of its Covid response. Twitter is complying https://twitter.com/...
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@arictoler
Aric Toler
on x
Every time Twitter, Facebook, or YouTube has a minor spat with Roskomnadzor about Navalny videos or whatever it is non-stop news, but they've out there censoring whatever Modi requests for a while now https://twitter.com/...
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@jkosseff
Jeff Kosseff
on x
Will link to this article in response to “But social media operates in countries that don't have an equivalent of the First Amendment and Section 230.” https://twitter.com/...
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@brianfishman
Brian Fishman
on x
More regulation of the Internet is necessary, but any capabilities established will set global precedent, persist beyond current decision makers, and shift responsibility for tradeoffs from industry to policymakers. There is absolutely room to make things worse, not better. https…
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@evelyndouek
Evelyn Douek
on x
A state minister accuses Prime Minister Modi of downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic. The gvt orders Twitter to take it down. It's hard to imagine more core political speech at a more serious time. India v. platforms is the most imp battle for online speech right now https…
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@reckless
Nilay Patel
on x
The heart of the argument that platforms have their own free speech rights to moderate as they want is right here: a government telling Twitter what to do, and Twitter being made to comply even though it is obviously the wrong thing to do
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@reckless
Nilay Patel
on x
India is in the middle of a humanitarian disaster and Twitter preventing that from being shared is a moral failure https://twitter.com/...
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@nixxin
Nikhil Pahwa
on x
Twitter has complied with govt requests to censor 52 tweets largely critical of India's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Affected accounts include MP Revanth Reddy, WB minister Moloy Ghatak, actor Vineet Kumar Singh, among others. https://www.medianama.com/...
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@mohitmrao
Mohit Rao
on x
Priorities. Censored tweets includes those holding PM accountable, saying the healthcare system is collapsing, criticism of political rallies being held during the pandemic. https://twitter.com/...
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@jaskiratsb
@jaskiratsb
on x
IMPORTANT! Twitter complied with Indian govt's demand to censor 52 tweets (by an actor, sitting MP, state minister and 2 film makers) that mostly criticised its handling of the 2nd surge of the COVID-19 pandemic. @medianama explains what was removed. https://www.medianama.com/...…
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@sirsteven
@sirsteven
on x
shocking Covid crisis in India right now, and this is what the government is fiddling with... https://twitter.com/...
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@tomwarren
Tom Warren
on x
the COVID situation in India is heartbreaking to see from across the world. People are dying because of a shortage of oxygen, but the government is busy forcing Twitter to remove critical tweets 🤦♂️ https://twitter.com/...