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Indian anti-terror police swoop on Twitter

by on25 May 2021


For crime of not allowing politicians to lie

India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party sent elite anti-terrorist coppers around to the Twitter offices to send a message after the social notworking giant refused to remove a warning label on some faked photographs its politicians wanted to circulate.

Members of the Bharatiya Janata Party tweeted some fake news based around a doctored photograph in which they had accused the opposition Congress party of scheming to damage Indian prime minister Narendra Modi for his handling of the second wave of India's coronavirus pandemic.

In an image they circulated, they claimed that the Congress party was giving special medical favors to journalists affected by the pandemic among other things. AltNews, an Indian fact-checking website, found that the image was forged.

Twitter slapped a "Manipulated Media" label on the tweets but did not pull them. On Friday, India's IT ministry sent a letter to the company asking it to remove the labels. Twitter did not.

So on Monday, a team of officers from the Special Cell, an elite branch of the Delhi Police in charge of investigating terrorism and organized crime in New Delhi descended on Twitter's offices in the city to "serve a notice" to Twitter's India head.

Police also attempted to raid a Twitter office in Gurugram, a location that has been permanently closed which was a little embarrassing.  

There is a wave of cases of politicians trying to require social media to print their faked news and outright lies. In the US Florida just passed a law which requires social media to print everything a politician says or face a fine.

Last modified on 25 May 2021
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