#TwitterFiles 17: A chilling cocktail of #censorship and #Hinduphobia.
The latest in my @SundayGuardian column #ChicagoDiary.
A thread. 🧵1/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
When journalist @mtaibbi released the 17th version of the Twitter Files, some 40,000 American Twitter users, including many US citizens, discovered a US government-funded group was tracking them for alleged “disinformation” and “online harassment.”
🧵2/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
Dataset sent to Twitter’s Trust & Safety team by the Atlantic Council’s DFRLab. TheDFRLab alleged that those handles belonged to “Hindu nationalists” and “paid employees or possibly volunteers” of India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
🧵3/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
Twitter Files releases have shown well-orchestrated systemic collusion between the Biden administration, functionaries of the Democrat Party, Silicon Valley Big Tech companies, social media platforms, and corporate media outlets.
🧵4/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
Another aspect of Taibbi’s latest Twitter Files release was the involvement of an ultra-Left Indian news portal. One of the reporters from that portal had shared a dataset with the DFRLab alleging those tweets were from the “Hindu nationalists.”
🧵5/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
... and BJP supporters. While the Indian portal approached DFRLab seeking help in punitive measures against “Hindu nationalists” and BJP supporters on Twitter in the US, it was also engaged in a bizarre dispute with Facebook’s parent company Meta.
🧵6/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
It was distressing for many Hindu American observers that a well-reputed and well-established think-tank like Atlantic Council did not do its due diligence in entertaining requests from the Indian news portal.
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
🧵7/10
This revelation comes on the heels of Teaneck (N.J.) Democrats’ resolution last year that erroneously categorized several Hindu organizations operating in the US as terrorist groups.
🧵8/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
The resolution also tried to intimidate and bully Hindus by calling on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other US investigative and law enforcement agencies to investigate and prosecute Hindu American organizations.
🧵9/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
However, the most disturbing aspect of the latest Twitter Files exposé is that many Hindu Americans were unaware of the collaborated efforts to silence them by infringing on their First Amendment rights at the behest of a foreign agent.
🧵10/10
sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/twitte…
The list of 44,000 alleged “Hindu nationalists…” that Twitter received from DFRLab via Indian news portal is here. 👇🏼👇🏼
Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.
A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.