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Twitter fought a court battle on this in India just a few months ago[a], [b]. The government even threatened Twitter Execs with jail time[0], [1]. Making this

Twitter fought a court battle on this in India just a few months ago[a], [b]. The government even threatened Twitter Execs with jail time[0], [1]. Making this worse are the new Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 (the “Intermediary Rules”)[3]. Among the many issues, they increase obligations on large social media platforms (above 5e5 users), enforce government takedowns within 36 hours, enable mandatory social media verification, enforce algorithmic (AI-driven) censorship and change intermediary liability to criminal. IFF has gotten one victory against these in court[2], but there's a long way to go. [0]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/india-threatens-twitter-with-penalties-if-it-doesnt-block-accounts-11612364787 https://www.wsj.com/articles/india-threatens-twitter-with-pe... [1]: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/india-threatens-twitter-jail https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/pranavdixit/india-threa... [a]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/01/twitter-restricts-over-a-dozen-high-profile-accounts-in-india-following-legal-demand/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/01/twitter-restricts-over-a-d... [b]: https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/03/india-sends-warning-to-twitter-over-lifting-block-on-accounts-and-noncompliance-of-order/ https://techcrunch.com/2021/02/03/india-sends-warning-to-twi... [3]: https://internetfreedom.in/intermediaries-rules-2021/ https://internetfreedom.in/intermediaries-rules-2021/ [2]: https://internetfreedom.in/kerala-hc-grants-a-stay-of-the-operation-of-part-iii-of-the-intermediaries-rules-2021-to-livelaw/ https://internetfreedom.in/kerala-hc-grants-a-stay-of-the-op...

LittlePeter 6y ago
why would you abbreviate 500000 as 5e5 and not say 500K or 500,000?
- erik_seaberg 6y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh is an Indian unit. They write five lakh where I'd write half a million.
  - captn3m0 6y ago
    Yup, the number in my head was 5 lakh and it doesn't occur to me to write it as 0.5M. I've been forcing myself to remember lakh=1e5,crore=1e7,million=1e6 while doing calculations these days, so just happened to write it that way.
panarky 6y ago
If Twitter obeys the government's order and censors tweets critical of the government, while tweets about the censorship are still visible, then the Streisand Effect will amplify the message that the government is trying to suppress.
- captn3m0 6y ago
  Usually yes, but Indian government’a propaganda machine is strong. Heck, if you open Twitter’s COVID timeline (which they feature heavily), it only shows official tweets from the Government on COVID. All of them downplaying the pandemic, praising the handling, and painting a rosy picture.

LittlePeter 6y ago

why would you abbreviate 500000 as 5e5 and not say 500K or 500,000?

erik_seaberg 6y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakh is an Indian unit. They write five lakh where I'd write half a million.
- captn3m0 6y ago
  Yup, the number in my head was 5 lakh and it doesn't occur to me to write it as 0.5M. I've been forcing myself to remember lakh=1e5,crore=1e7,million=1e6 while doing calculations these days, so just happened to write it that way.

panarky 6y ago

If Twitter obeys the government's order and censors tweets critical of the government, while tweets about the censorship are still visible, then the Streisand Effect will amplify the message that the government is trying to suppress.

captn3m0 6y ago
Usually yes, but Indian government’a propaganda machine is strong. Heck, if you open Twitter’s COVID timeline (which they feature heavily), it only shows official tweets from the Government on COVID. All of them downplaying the pandemic, praising the handling, and painting a rosy picture.