As India reeled from the devastating covid-19 deaths, it censored critical content on social media. @project_polis's @watchthestate was temporarily restricted twice in one week. @kiccovich and I write about this censorship for the @washingtonpost
washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Since March, as the Indian health infrastructure completely crumbled, social media platforms have become the de facto helplines where helpless citizens ask for help and offer mutual support.
To maintain a lived memory of the present and gather evidence to hold the state accountable, our account has been collecting and sharing instances of state violence from reliable news sources.
The Twitter restrictions, for a few hours each on April 22 and April 29, on @watchthestate happened soon after we started curating regular threads with reports published by national and international news outlets.
But there have been many media reports on how the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor dozens of posts criticizing the administration’s response to the pandemic.
Twitter complied with the Indian government’s request and took down 52 tweets by elected officials, journalists and editors that criticized the government’s response to the pandemic.
Twitter also suspended Hindutva Watch, an account that shared news reports published by mainstream Indian outlets.
Facebook, meanwhile, temporarily blocked posts with the hashtag #ResignModi. More than 12,000 posts calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were briefly hidden on April 28.
The silencing of critical voices is not new. The Indian government has consistently restricted and censored physical and online spaces by abusing local laws and imposing a series of regulations aimed at tech giants.
These include getting social media and tech companies such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor content and issuing orders that restrict free speech. These arbitrary restrictions have been put in place without transparency, accountability or respect for due process.
Much of what India is experiencing today has been fully tested over decades in Kashmir and other so-called “disturbed” states, where military and political impunity, accompanied by the erasure or incarceration of antagonistic voices, have long been the norm.
A 2019 report by @pressfreedom found that nearly 1 million tweets have been removed since 2017. (@AASchapiro )

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More from @suchitrav

6 May
Hindu Or Muslim?’ ‘Nude Photos’: Covid-19 Volunteers Bear Brunt Of @TejasviSurya’s Communal Outburst

~ 205 mobile numbers were leaked
~ Covid-19 volunteers are being harassed with question: “Are you Hindu or Muslim?”
~ women asked to send nudes

indiaaheadnews.com/covid-19/tejas…
Reported by @Suraj_Suresh16
Following @Tejasvi_Surya communal outburst, a list of the 205 volunteers of South Zone War Room was leaked and circulated on Whatsapp, with the names of the 17 Muslim volunteers highlighted in yellow. The list also included women volunteers.
Read 4 tweets
4 May
Pick your battles.
Your allies will never be perfect. There are no messiahs.
Not every disagreement has to be in the public eye.
Please don’t lose sight of the regime that has and is bludgeoning the democracy and its people.

Pick your battles, and be safe.
If I know someone is fighting the same battles, I trust that they are here for the fight; no matter how imperfect, I will not call them out. I will hold my peace in public but will speak my truth in private. This is as much a strategy as it is about the larger fight.
Remember we are stronger when we have each other’s back when fighting a regime that is violent and well funded. Our resources are our people. Invest in people. Create space for multiple decisive voices. But always pick your battles.
Read 4 tweets
24 Apr
There Is No Case. Release the Bhima Koregaon 16 and Compensate Them m.thewire.in/article/rights… by @meenakandasamy and @jigneshmevani80
“This leads us to the inevitable question, why has the Modi government were targeted and incarcerated the Bhima Koregaon 16?
None of them committed crimes of any sort. None of them indulged in any violence.”
They remain in jail on the basis of claims made by the police based on electronic evidence. Now, when the two Arsenal reports make it abundantly clear that the electronic evidence was itself planted, all claims of conspiracy fall.
Read 5 tweets
14 Mar
Making list of Dr @TeltumbdeA ‘s books and works.

The Persistence of Caste
The Khairlanji Murders and India's Hidden Apartheid

zedbooks.net/shop/book/the-…
Republic of Caste: Thinking of Equality in the Era of Neoliberalism and Hindutva

amazon.com/Republic-Caste…
Khairlanji: A Strange And Bitter Crop smile.amazon.com/dp/8189059157/…
Read 13 tweets
13 Mar
If anything the book& the poem you listed - details the invasion and conquest of the Madurai Sultanate by the Vijayanagara empire and the temple chronicles also speak of board time period of various invasions. To weaponize the “sultanate” now is just dog whistle.
History is complicated, and messy.

To retell history through communalized goes to the heart of politics seeking to manipulate, manufacture and mobilise public support to consolidate the power of the majority.
Revisionist history strategically demands for revenge as a form of justice to right historical wrongs committed under non-Hindu rulers.
Read 4 tweets
12 Mar
A friend just sent the petition being circulated by Hindu students against Prof @AudreyTruschke. Am not sharing that. What insufferable, ill-informed toxic fragility is this? If scholarship threaten your safety, and your religion. Perhaps time to rethink what those values are.
I want to take this moment to share Prof @KanitkarT ‘s talk


It’s a good indication of where we are as a society and a community. We have lost any capacity for robust interrogation or rational thought.
Also adding a thread by @quizzicalguy where you debunks the claim of Hindu genocide the students have listed as proof of “bigotry” against them!
Read 5 tweets

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