WhatsApp and Twitter Stand the Ground Against Indian Government

The list of the countries that try to control global social media and messengers on their ground grows. Now, India also joins that list, as it tries to get sensitive matters either removed or served from the government’s point of view. WhatsApp and Twitter are the first targets, but they are already proving they will fight back.

According to the recent regulations issued as late as 2021, social media executives in India are responsible for spreading fake news on the platform. Refusing to remove a certain piece of information can result in being imprisoned for them. One of the recent targets for such incriminations lately became WhatsApp which hosts lots of encrypted chats; the government wants them transparent and some of them deleted.

Indian civil rights defenders have been saying that the government has gone beyond its own rules in its persecution of online activists. While their declared aims are prevention of spreading fake news and hate speech, the real victims are often practitioners of free speech – like a well-known film director Sandeep Ravindranath whose 5-minute film was removed from YouTube in June by request from Indian authorities.

But some social media react differently. Twitter, for example, removes posts of Indian politicians (including Bharatiya Janata, the party of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi) that it considers containing hate speech – in this case, towards Muslims. It also took to the court in an attempt to dispute the actions of the government, which even raided their office in New Delhi. So does WhatsApp also sues the government for its actions.

What are those sensitive matters in question? One of them is the status of Kashmir, a state that has been an arena of territorial conflict between India and Pakistan (and the subject of Ravindranath’s film). Another one is civil rights themselves, endangered by attempts to establish more control over online activities.

What do you think of the situation? Share your thoughts and visions in the comments if you please!