youThe Indian government’s response was swift and draconian. Days after a BBC documentary examining the role that Narendra Modi, now Prime Minister, had played in the Gujarat communal riots of 2002 was released, the Information Ministry announced that all links to the images would be banned on social media.
Emergency laws introduced by the Modi government just two years ago were used to enforce the ban.
Both Twitter and YouTube quickly complied with the government’s censorship requests. Posts were removed on some 50 Twitter accounts, with activists, politicians and even Hollywood actors among those affected, as well as an unspecified number of YouTube channels. Widely shared clips of the documentary filmwhich alleged that Modi, in his role as Gujarat’s prime minister at the time, had allowed and then did nothing to stop the violence in which nearly 1,000 Muslims were killed, quickly disappeared from Indian social media.
It is not the first time that the Modi government has used the 2021 information technology rules to censor online content critical of the administration. However, the action taken over the BBC documentary is among the most high-profile uses of the legislation and shines a light on the fragile and contentious place that social networks like Twitter now occupy in India and directly facing the vote of the new billionaire owner. from the platform. , Elon Musk, to be a “free speech absolutist” against the increasingly authoritarian laws governing the country’s online sphere.
Widely criticized by human rights groups and digital activists, the 2021 IT rules give the government the power to remove any content it deems threatens “the unity, integrity, defence, security or sovereignty of India.”
Even before the legislation was passed, legal demands by the Modi government to remove content from Twitter increased by 48,000% between 2014 and 2020, according to company analysis transparency reports.
The two-part BBC series documenting the rise of Modi has proven highly controversial in India, despite only premiering in the UK, prompting accusations from the Indian Foreign Ministry that it was of “biased propaganda” that displayed a “blatant colonial mentality”.
Kanchan Gupta, a spokesman for the Information Ministry, called the documentary “hostile propaganda and anti-Indian rubbish” and students who organized a screening at a Kerala university this week were accused of “traitors”. At Delhi’s prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, students who attempted the same suffered power and internet cuts, and were pelted with stones by other members of right-wing groups.
The BBC has said that his documentary was “rigorously researched according to the highest editorial standards”.
Many have cited his compliance with online censorship of the documentary as an example of how Twitter and YouTube are helping to further erode freedom of expression in India, to appease the Modi government and not compromise access to the vast Indian population every once again online. . There are more than 40 million Twitter users in India, making it its third largest market after Japan and the US.
“This use of an emergency law as a censorship mechanism is a very worrying development, but it is not the first time it has happened,” said Prateek Waghre, policy director at the Internet Freedom Foundation advocacy group in India. According to a statement sent to parliament in July, action has been taken against 94 YouTube channels, 19 social media accounts and 747 URLs at the request of the government since the IT rules were passed.
Prior to Musk’s inauguration, Twitter had rejected, albeit somewhat inconsistently, the Modi government’s increasingly harsh approach to social media. Twitter had restored some of the accounts the administration had demanded to be removed, and in July last year filed a lawsuit in Indian courts alleging that New Delhi had abused its power by ordering the company to arbitrarily and disproportionately remove accounts belonging to Twitter. to critics of the government.
Twitter still reports all posts and accounts it removes at the request of the Indian government to the online database Lumen. YouTube, however, does not.
For all his protestations of being a crusader for free speech, however, there are indicators that Musk’s Twitter could be a lot less sanguine when taking on the Modi government. As Musk was trying to back out of the deal to buy the platform, he made it clear in court documents that he was unhappy with the lawsuit against the Indian government, saying he believed restraint should “conform to the laws of the countries in which Twitter operates.
Among the Indian accounts that have been reinstated since Musk took office is that of Kangana Ranaut, a fiercely pro-Modi actor who has championed anti-Muslim sentiments and was suspended in 2021 for posts seen as calling for violence against minorities.
Upon taking office, he did not mention the lawsuit once, but fired almost all of Twitter’s 200 employees in India. Elsewhere, Musk’s car company, Tesla, is lobbying the Indian government to cut import duties on electric vehicles so it can gain access to the lucrative Indian market.
Waghre said Musk’s position on defending free speech on Twitter, which is already wildly inconsistent, will likely be “severely tested in India”, as the furore surrounding the BBC documentary demonstrated.
“We are talking about pressures on free speech in the largest democracy in the world,” Waghre said. “Musk’s promise has rung hollow everywhere, but in India the impact will undoubtedly be greater.”
