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Government Orders Twitter To Take Down Posts Which Are Critical Of the Government
Writer: Kathakali Dutta
Kathakali Dutta is a second semester student of the Master of Communication and Journalism (Integrated) programme at the School of Mass Communication, KIIT Deemed University, Bhubaneswar.
India, 25 April 2021 9:14 AM GMT
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Tweets took down following the orders of the Government even included verified accounts of people like Congress Spokesperson Pawan Khera, Member of Parliament Revanth Reddy, among many others.
Twitter removed over 50 posts from the platform, which were critical of the mismanagement and mishandling of the Covid situation by the Central Government. Most of the deleted tweets revolved around the Government's incompetence to effectively contain the spread of the virus and provide sufficient medical facilities to those infected. While India battles with a second hit of the Covid-19 virus, the number of daily infections continues to rise exponentially, and the count of deaths has touched thousands every day. Naturally, questions asked, and criticisms were against the Government on social media platforms. Twitter has lately removed 50 posts following Government orders.
Tweets Of Verified Accounts Removed
Many of the tweets highlighted the shortage of medicines, beds and oxygen, mass burials and inability to halt mass gatherings like Kumb Mela. Therefore, these tweets were taken down and cannot be viewed only in India. Tweets taken down following the orders of the Government even included verified accounts of people like Congress Spokesperson Pawan Khera, Member of Parliament Revanth Reddy, the minister from West Bengal Moloy Ghatak, ABP News editor Pankaj Jha, Actor Vineet Kumar Singh, filmmaker Avinash Das and filmmaker and former journalist Vinod Kapri, reported The Hindu.
The details of this Government order have been recorded in the Lumen database, a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University for recording and analyzing materials requested to be removed from the web. The story first reported by the news website Medianama. This year, during February, the Government asked Twitter to take down around 1,200 accounts that had actively posted content relating to farmers' protest against the new farm laws.
The Logical Indian strongly condemn the orders to take down the tweets; raising questions and criticizing is the only way an elected government can be held accountable. The pandemic times, where precious lives are lost in thousands, the Government should focus on pandemic and solutions rather than silencing criticisms. The actions do not bode well for the Democracy that we are. Criticisms mirror the needs of the society; it will bode well if the Government can listen to them and act on them.
Also Read: Vaccination Against Covid-19 For Age Above 18 Will Begin On April 28 - Government Confirms
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