Twitter sues Indian government over content takedown orders

India's rules governing content takedowns are being challenged by local mobile carriers and Twitter, on grounds that they are technically infeasible and restrict free speech. The micro-blogging service's challenge has landed in the form of a lawsuit filed to oppose recent government requests to remove some tweets, according to …

[ShadowSystems]

I wonder...

If the various companies subject to such laws will continue to operate in-country up to the point where they get notified that their C-level execs are about to be picked up for prosecution at which point said execs all have a "fact finding tour" of some other country & are thus unavailable for such recriminations, or if they just decide it's too toxic to operate in-country any longer, pull up stakes, & move to another nation without such onorous restrictions?

[Graham Cobb]

Need to replace platforms

Anti-freedom measures such as these, which are intended to give politicans control of what people see and can discuss are the reason that platforms (Twitter, Facebook, etc) urgently need to die and be replaced by protocols (like web, mail, messaging, etc).

It certainly isn't just India which is a problem. Virtually every government in the world wants to regulate speech on the Internet. Not just the "usual suspects" (Russia, China, Brazil, Vietnam, ...) but the EU, US, UK, Australia, etc all have created similar laws. This has to stop. If we value democracy and freedom of speech then we need to urgently democratise and open up social media so there are no gatekeepers.

[Raj]

Re: Need to replace platforms

"Democracy" ? "Freedom of speech" ? You're off your rocker here. Twitter's actual problem in India is nothing so idealistic. They're run by a group of unaccountable hard left types who are pissing off everyone to the right of them - from the center-left to the right.

Twitter India's problem is that it's cavalierly giving and taking away 'verified' tags, shadow-banning significant personalities on and off, and generally giving influential online personalities no reason to be their ally in any fight with the authorities.

Getting lost in hoary and high minded ideals is impressive, but Twitter India's going down for far more mundane reasons.