Twitter feels hot as India strengthens its grip on social platforms

Chaudhary Sukhram Singh Yadav, a second-generation parliamentarian of India’s opposition Samajwadi Party, has a fairly limited on-line presence. His Twitter account, created last February, boasts less than 250 followers.

However, his account suspension last week reflected the dilemma that Twitter faced when it overcame a serious conflict with New Delhi.

Yadav Hundreds of accounts It was blocked by the platform at the request of the Government of India after he used controversial hashtags to support widespread peasant protests in India.

But Twitter cites the country’s own freedom of speech law, a stance that fuels its relationship with New Delhi, and censors the accounts of protesters and those discussing their causes. I refused to comply with the request.

The fight is likely to intensify for months, especially as the Indian government seeks to tighten control of major social platforms, experts say.

“The trend is very clear,” said Apar Gupta, co-founder of the Internet Freedom Foundation. “There is a clear move towards creating barriers for large Indian social media companies, not only from economic gain, but also from the desire for greater political control.”

Coby Goldberg, an analyst at the Center for Higher Defense Research, said the standoff could set a dangerous precedent for how other democratic governments handle online complaints. ..

“Many other countries may be bold to present the same ultimatum on Twitter. Moderate content or lose access to the market based on national policy. Face a threat. “

“Always seen”

Confrontation with Indian authorities comes less than a year after New Delhi Banned TikTok Over 100 other Chinese apps in retaliation with Death of 21 Indian soldiers In a border dispute with the Chinese army.

Tensions between New Delhi and Twitter exploded last month after a long period of time Peasant protest Protesters and police clashed in the heart of the capital, intensifying opposition to agricultural market reforms.

The Indian government then ordered Twitter to block accounts accused of attempting to “fuel the situation.” Twitter was only partially obeyed and was severely reprimanded by New Delhi as follows:Deep disappointmentOf the platform.

The deadlock also occurs when India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party cracks down on public criticism using Internet closures and colonial law. Discourage dissenting opinions..

The Indian Ministry of Interior plans to recruit “cybercrime volunteers” to report unwanted material across a wide range of legal categories, such as “For India’s Sovereignty and Honesty.”

“This is a government-promoted vigilantism in its appearance,” said digital rights activist Nikhill Pawa. “You will be afraid to be seen all the time.”

In this enthusiastic climate, New Delhi’s social media content scrutiny and content moderation policy could be strengthened with the support of homemade technology platforms.

“The situation for all social media companies, not just Twitter, will become increasingly difficult,” Gupta said. “A large amount of social commentary is directed at them, expressing the nationalist sentiment towards a more self-sufficient and self-sustaining technology ecosystem in which Indian companies operate platforms with Indian entrepreneurs.”

For Twitter, the huge and fast-growing market for potential users is at stake. According to Counterpoint Research, India’s Internet-connected population is projected to grow from 600 million last year to 850 million by the end of 2022.

According to Sensor Tower, the app has only been downloaded 90 million times from India’s Google Play Store and Apple App Store, while WhatsApp has been downloaded 1.4 billion times, a forum important to influencers, media and the business community. It continues to exist.

The Narendra Modi administration is increasingly being criticized for online content. According to Twitter’s latest transparency report, Indian authorities made 2,800 requests to Twitter to remove or suspend access to content in the first half of 2020. This is the fifth highest number in the world, up 254% in the second half of 2019.

The company has responded to just under 14% of these demands, compared to more than 36% in the second half of 2019.

“When it comes to Internet freedom in India, things are definitely getting worse,” said Udbhav Tiwari, a public policy adviser to the Internet nonprofit Mozilla.

Beyond India

Twitter is banned in many countries, including Iran, North Korea, Turkmenistan, Uganda and China.

In India, it is “unavoidable” that Twitter and other foreign digital media platforms will face more stringent regulations and the demand for blocking content will steadily increase, “Gupta said.

“It’s only a matter of time before regulations come out that make operations more stringent with more government control,” he said. “The number of requests to delete user content and requests for user information will increase.”

Similar battles are taking place elsewhere in Asia, both as democracies and authoritarian nations. Seek more control In online content, we are pressing companies to continue their activities there in violation of the standards of freedom of speech.

Facebook While facing criticism for limiting freedom of expression in Vietnam, Google censored content from Vietnamese and Thai dissidents at the request of their government. Dia Kayyali, Associate Director of Advocacy for Digital Human Rights Organization Nemonic, expected such pressure to increase.

“We will not only see different ways to make the platform more responsible at the national and international levels, but will also try to force the platform to do what the government wants,” she says. I did.

Indian authorities are also promoting indigenous Twitter rivals such as Koo, a new microblogging app that works in eight Indian languages ​​and has been downloaded 3.3 million times.

According to Sensor Tower data, when authorities sparred publicly on Twitter, several Indian ministers and government departments promoted their accounts on Koo, increasing downloads by 215% compared to the previous week.

However, Counterpoint analyst Neil Shah said it’s rare to create a viable local competitor for high-quality global apps. He said that after TikTok was banned, many users simply moved to Instagram after the first surge in users of short-form video apps in India.

Among those who bet on Koo was Mohandas Pai, a former CEO and director of Indian IT giant Infosys and an investor in the new platform.

Pai said global social media giants have undermined and will face their credibility by taking political aspects in the United States and elsewhere. Increasing regulatory scrutiny In India as the discomfort with their monopoly power increased.

“We are not in China,” Pai told the . “We never build a good firewall to keep everyone else out, but all of these social media platforms must comply with the law, and there is no compromise.”