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Twitter Social Networks

Twitter Blocks Numerous High-Profile Accounts in India Following Government's 'Legal demand' (techcrunch.com) 25

Twitter blocked access to dozens of accounts in India, including some that belonged to high-profile individuals, on Monday to comply with a "legal demand," prompting confusion and anger among users who are seeking an explanation for this action. From a report: Among those whose accounts have been withheld in India include Caravan, a news outlet that conducts investigative journalism, political commentator Sanjukta Basu, activist Hansraj Meena, actor Sushant Singh, and Shashi Shekhar Vempati, chief executive of state-run brodcasting agency Prasar Bharti. Accounts of at least two politicians with Aam Aadmi Party -- Preeti Sharma Menon and Jarnail Singh -- that governs the National Capital Territory of Delhi have also been withheld. At least two popular accounts linked with ongoing protests by farmers -- Kisan Ekta Morcha and Tractor2Twitr -- in India have also been restricted.

Citing a government source, AFP journalist Bhuvan Bagga reported earlier today that India's Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology directed Twitter to block around 250 tweets and accounts that were using a hashtag to make what it alleged were false, intimidatory and provocative tweets over the weekend. He adds: "Incitement to genocide is a grave threat to public order and therefore the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITY) ordered for blocking of these Twitter accounts and Tweets under Section 69A of the Information Technology Act." A person familiar with the matter corroborated this claim to TechCrunch.

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Twitter Blocks Numerous High-Profile Accounts in India Following Government's 'Legal demand'

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  • This is the problem with centralized control of infrastructure. (Yes, I'm including social media in my definition of 'infrastructure'). The government puts on the pressure, and 'X' service gets shut down.

    What we really need is to have widespread mesh networks, and servers that are more distributed and less centralized. (Note that de-concentrating the resources has the beneficial, but problematic, side effect of de-concentrating some wealth as well). There are lots of technical, social, and logistical hurdle

    • the likes of which you can't get with decentralized infrastructure. Sure you can put up a blog, but who's gonna read it? Twitter and FB feed data directly to users who are likely to find your content attractive. And they have algorithms that keep them reading and get them hooked. Once you can't easily replicate as you don't have a team of psychologists and expert programmers on hand.
      • The reality is that having an audience gives you power and when you have no competition that power is close to absolute. Its not an accident that Twitter, Facebook and the other social media sites waited until Trump had lost power to silence him. He repeatedly claimed that he got more votes than Clinton in 2016. No one tried to shut him up.
      • you can't easily replicate as you don't have a team of psychologists and expert programmers on hand.

        Willing to sell their souls and cause great societal harm so they can make some money. i.e., anyone who works at Twitter, Facebook, etc.

  • India is a good country to try out Censorship as a Service. Asians are not nearly as ovine as white people and wouldn't accept having a corporate consortium assume veto power over basic open speech rights, as in the US, but offering the same business model to governments may be their way to go in this market space.

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