Twitter censors links to documentary criticizing India’s Modi

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The Indian government said that Twitter had complied with demands to block links to a controversial BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Elon Musk, a self-proclaimed Free Speech absolutist and Twitter’s owner, was criticized for engaging in censorship. 

Key Players

Twitter is an American microblogging and social networking service on which users post and interact via tweets. As of 2022, Twitter had nearly 400 million users worldwide. Over the years, the platform has received degrees of backlash from all parts of the political spectrum, including accusations of censorship and spreading disinformation. 

Elon Musk, a South African-American entrepreneur and investor, is the CEO and owner of Twitter, an acquisition he completed in October 2022. He is also the founder and CEO of SpaceX, a spacecraft manufacturer, and Tesla, an electric vehicle company. In June 2022, he was considered the wealthiest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $211 billion at the time. 

Narendra Modi is prime minister of India, the world’s largest democracy. He has held this position since 2014, and was reelected in 2019. Modi represents the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. 

Further Details

On Jan. 17, 2023, BBC released the first of a two-part documentary titled “India: The Modi Question” to its audience in the United Kingdom. It features a comprehensive evaluation of the Gujarat riots that occurred in 2002, while Modi was serving as chief minister of Gujarat. Many have accused Modi of allowing violent anti-Muslim riots to carry on unabated, resulting in nearly 1,000 Muslims being killed in what is largely considered a genocidal massacre. Gujarat is one of India’s most populous states.

Clips of the BBC documentary spread across social media platforms, and the Indian government banned the film in that country.

On Jan. 20, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting filed a legal request to Twitter asking the platform to block content having to do with the documentary, justifying it under Section 69(A) of the country’s IT Act, which allows the government to “restrict access to any content in the interest of sovereignty and integrity of the country, security of the state, friendly relations with foreign states or for public order.” 

The request cited more than 50 Twitter accounts with links to the documentary, most of which have since been blocked, including tweets from Indian Parliament member Derek O’Brien and American political activists. 

The next day, Kanchan Gupta, a senior adviser to the Indian government, posted a series of tweets criticizing the documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage, disguised as ‘documentary.’”

Gupta said that several ministries, including External Affairs, Home Affairs, and Information and Broadcasting, examined the “malicious ‘documentary’ and found it casting aspersions on the authority and credibility of Supreme Court of India, sowing divisions among various Indian communities, and making unsubstantiated allegations.”

Moreover, Gupta announced that the Indian government had urged YouTube to block videos of the documentary if they were uploaded again. The government had also ordered Twitter to block any tweets containing links to videos of the documentary.

On Jan. 26, a BBC spokesperson said that “The BBC has not asked Twitter to remove any content relating to the documentary.”

Outcome 

Critics accuse Musk of engaging in censorship

On Jan. 24, The Intercept accused Elon Musk of partaking in censorship across Twitter for complying with the Indian government’s demand that it take down tweets referencing the documentary. 

“This act of censorship – wiping away allegations of crimes against humanity committed by a foreign leader – sets a worrying tone for Twitter, especially in light of its new management,” The Intercept wrote. 

“The documentary has unnerved Mr. Modi as he continues to evade accountability for his complicity in the violence,” Raqib Hameed Naik, a journalist, told The Intercept, adding that Modi saw “the documentary as a threat to his image internationally and has launched an unprecedented crackdown in India.”

Akshay Marathe, a former spokesperson for the opposition party of the Delhi and Punjab government, said that Modi’s “directive to Twitter to take down all links of the documentary (and Twitter’s shocking compliance after Elon’s commitment to free speech) also follows on the heels of the Modi government’s announcement that it will soon implement a regulatory regime in which it will have the right to determine what is fake news and order Big Tech platforms to delete the content.”

Rasheed Ahmed, executive director of the Indian American Muslim council, told NBC, “Self-proclaimed free-speech absolutists like Elon Musk must walk the talk. By withholding Twitter posts on [the] BBC documentary, Musk has made clear that for him, profits matter more than human rights.”

Musk responds

On Jan. 25, Musk responded to the article’s accusations, tweeting, “First I’ve heard. It is not possible for me to fix every aspect of Twitter worldwide overnight, while still running Tesla and SpaceX, among other things.”

In April, in an interview with BBC, Musk said, “I am not aware of this particular situation… don’t know what exactly happened with some content situation in India.”

But, he added, “If we have a choice of either our people go to prison or we comply with the laws, we will comply with the laws.”