The Union Government’s decision to unilaterally suspend dozens of Twitter accounts on the platform alongside scores of others on several other social networking sites including Facebook and Youtube have sparked a row in India over the role of the government in censoring farmer’s voices and a bid to curtail voices reporting on the ground reality of the farmers’ protests in the name of public order.
In an official statement released by its handle, Twitter has revealed that “the Indian government has issued executive orders requiring X to act on specific accounts and posts, subject to potential penalties, including significant fines and imprisonment.” The company said that while “they disagree with these actions and maintain that freedom of expression should extend to these posts” in compliance with the orders, they will withhold these accounts and posts in India alone. “Due to legal restrictions, we are unable to publish the executive orders, but we believe that making them public is essential for transparency. This lack of disclosure can lead to a lack of accountability and arbitrary decision-making,” the company added.
The action of the union government has set off a row with Congress alleging that democracy was being murdered and freedom of expression -- one of the hallmarks of a liberal democracy -- was being wiped off. The scale of the action, its mode of implementation and the secrecy surrounding the action in which blocking orders are not revealed to be public so that they can be challenged before the courts leave no doubt that this is indeed nothing but an attempt by the government to curtail any negative image that it is being portrayed especially in an election year.
Questions have been raised about the law itself given the unbridled powers that the government has granted itself to take down social media accounts, those which it has been using to blank out posts critical of its functioning and several petitions pending before various courts challenging the validity of the law itself -- including one by Twitter itself.
The government has been conveniently using its powers to stifle free speech and expression, keep a lid on dissent and quash criticism -- something that it has been repeatedly doing in a blatant disregard for the rights and freedoms granted by the Constitution that are among the key guardrails of democracy.
That Twitter and its influential CEO Elon Musk have spoken up about the unilateral censorship taking place in India has served as an important focal point to highlight what the government has been doing for a while now without any restraint. That the government has been allergic to any form of criticism is evident from the retributional actions both small and large that they have unloaded upon actors critical of their functioning including revoking OCI cards, instituting I-T and ED raids, jailing activists and journalists under false charges and a host of other actions all in a bid to maintain an impervious image.
Such actions fly in the face of the principles of a liberal democracy that India has been founded upon and need to be vociferously countered lest the government be emboldened to further erode our constitutionally guaranteed liberties.
