India is for some reason worried that Twitter has become a threat to the country’s security and has warned the microblog of “appropriate and suitable action”.The country has told Twitter that it has to shut down twenty accounts believed to be spreading scare-mongering stories. However, Twitter hasn’t replied to the threat yet.
It seems that India has been getting all censorship mad lately. For example, the authorities have blocked 200 pages that are claimed to have incited communal violence in the northeast. There even had been fighting between Muslim settlers and local tribal groups in the state of Assam.
The country’s authorities claim that the websites, as well as mass SMS messages, had frightened people from the northeast who were working in southern cities. Although social networks like Facebook, Google and Twitter were praised for helping the Arab Spring by aiding the free flow of information, it looks like the more established democracies have also begun regarding the web pages as a threat.
At the moment, Google and Facebook are trying to comply with the country’s government requests to remove the material. However, Twitter hasn’t given its reply to India’s requests yet. The problem is that India isn’t just stopping with the certain Twitter accounts – instead, it’s trying to close the Twitter accounts of journalists who have criticized the local authorities, which is not that democratic. In addition, India has thumped Al Jazeera news, along with the Daily Telegraph and the Aussie Broadcasting Corporation – the government believes that they are stirring up trouble.
The actions of the Indian government appear to be a knee jerk reaction against whatever might “inflame passions”. However, in fact it’s very often only bad press about botched government handling of a certain crisis. According to the experts’ reports, censorship in India is becoming more and more common.
In the meantime, the government of the United States is also starting to get involved. Since the country’s relationship with Pakistan was revealed to be a sham, the Unites States appears to have been trying to cultivate India. And now the country finds out that it has to leap to the defense of such American giants as Google and Twitter.
It seems that India has been getting all censorship mad lately. For example, the authorities have blocked 200 pages that are claimed to have incited communal violence in the northeast. There even had been fighting between Muslim settlers and local tribal groups in the state of Assam.
The country’s authorities claim that the websites, as well as mass SMS messages, had frightened people from the northeast who were working in southern cities. Although social networks like Facebook, Google and Twitter were praised for helping the Arab Spring by aiding the free flow of information, it looks like the more established democracies have also begun regarding the web pages as a threat.
At the moment, Google and Facebook are trying to comply with the country’s government requests to remove the material. However, Twitter hasn’t given its reply to India’s requests yet. The problem is that India isn’t just stopping with the certain Twitter accounts – instead, it’s trying to close the Twitter accounts of journalists who have criticized the local authorities, which is not that democratic. In addition, India has thumped Al Jazeera news, along with the Daily Telegraph and the Aussie Broadcasting Corporation – the government believes that they are stirring up trouble.
The actions of the Indian government appear to be a knee jerk reaction against whatever might “inflame passions”. However, in fact it’s very often only bad press about botched government handling of a certain crisis. According to the experts’ reports, censorship in India is becoming more and more common.
In the meantime, the government of the United States is also starting to get involved. Since the country’s relationship with Pakistan was revealed to be a sham, the Unites States appears to have been trying to cultivate India. And now the country finds out that it has to leap to the defense of such American giants as Google and Twitter.
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