It is not a secret anymore that American tech companies have been dabbling in political and social affairs of almost every country they operate in. Among these Twitter has been easily the most “Shady Operator” of all. Total lack of transparency, banning accounts for no good reason, becoming sole arbiter of what is abuse or breaking the law and allowing political gangs to dictate the discourse on the forum. Even in matters of “abuse” Twitter has been selective and discriminatory. Some handles use the foulest language, abuse others with the choicest of words but get away because they have blue ticks while others are suspended simply for using the “F” word or calling someone a “moron”.
The @MediaCrooks account was first suspended at the end of December 2017 over some so-called abuse of a minister but with no justified explanation. Owing to public outrage the account was restored immediately. Then, in June 2018, the account was permanently suspended because someone complained about my tweets on Khalistani terrorists killing Hindus during the 1980s. It was deemed as abuse of Sikhs. Khalistani terrorists killing Hindus is an absolute, undeniable fact. How such genuine truth can become abuse is the way Twitter mishandled its business.
Twitter suspends accounts for dumb reasons but mostly because the political goons of the ruling party, like the IT Cell of BJP, gangs up to target accounts that are harshly critical of PM Narendra Modi. When the accounts are targeted, Twitter starts shadow banning, making tweets of an account invisible to followers, starts playing games with your follower count and often makes tweets disappear. All of these have been chronicled in my posts “Twitter Games” and “Twitter Censorship”.
The bias, prejudice and nonsense of Jack Dorsey and Twitter had gone so far that they suspended the account of Donald Trump claiming his tweets incited violence when there was nothing of that sort whatsoever. In India, they permanently suspended the account of blabbermouth Kangana Ranaut simply for her anger over Bengal violence and asking Modi to take up his 2002 role in a silly reference to the Gujarat 2002 riots. These idiotic tweets may not be in good taste but bad taste is not a crime. And silly tweets like these do not incite violence. There is hardly anyone who doesn’t want to kill someone figuratively. Saying “I feel like killing Sagarika Ghose for her stupidity” doesn’t mean I want to kill her. It is merely an expression. Saying “I would kill to have that car” doesn’t mean someone is desperate to kill someone.
Modi is stupid enough to entertain any foreign businessman that visits India just for lipstick. Jack was sitting cross-legged across Modi as if he was talking to some low-level celebrity in a Karan Johar Koffee show. Jack later posed with the biggest scumbags in Indian media and other assorted Hindu-haters holding a placard that said “Smash Brahminical Patriarchy”. For a US businessman to ignorantly indulge in stupid campaigns of social strife of other countries is not what being Twitter CEO entitles you to:
The other aspect of Twitter under Jack was the extreme defence of anything that was Islamic; even some violent thugs and handles that issued threat after threat while many handles challenging them were suspended. That apart, distorting maps of JK every now and then and dodging Indian laws. All this had to end someday. This ends not because the ModiSarkar has any brains or guts. This ends because a man with lots of money buys out freedom: Elon Musk. One of the first statements that EM put out was this one:
Freedom of thought cannot be removed by any law. Freedom of expression can be controlled by law. Whether you’re a public platform or a private one, that freedom cannot be subjected to the prejudices and biases of those who control the platform. The only thing to ensure is that the FoE respects the law of the land and nothing more. Beyond that, there are cases of personal abuse, slander etc. which can be penalized by deletion of tweets, temporary suspensions or lock outs but permanent suspensions of accounts for flimsy, arbitrary decisions cannot be done. Those who are offended or defamed do have the option of going to the courts. You might just as well say “It’s my bat, so I will bat first” as kids do.
The biggest problem in India is the issue concerning religion and politics. The Islamists from world over freely abuse Hindus and Hinduism, while Hindus in India are restricted by their laws for retaliation. Therefore, the abuse of Hinduism from foreign lands should not be allowed by Twitter. This is an area where the GOI also fails miserably. Anything that is unlawful in India cannot be published in India. And EM does say that the law must be respected:
Free speech implies that much of the speech can also be offensive. Merely being offensive does not break the law. You don’t need FoE to bootlick Modi or sing songs in praise of him or for that matter anyone else. You need FoE to criticize him and even to trash him severely. It is possible that such criticism and trashing may be wrong or devoid of facts but that can only be fought with words and facts. The criminal BJP IT Cell and its network of goons systematically targets those handles criticizing Modi or any of his pet gods like Ambedkar or Phule. The handle of @TrueIndology or @BharadwajSpeaks was targeted for that very reason and the IT Cell got him suspended. The IT Cell used its coolies and relations with mid-level employees at Twitter India to execute criminal back-door actions on unfriendly accounts.
Some of the most notorious employees of Twitter may have to exit once Elon Musk takes over fully. There are Ban-masters or Ban-she like Vijaya Gadde (@Vijaya) who have trampled free speech, banned accounts and may face the axe. Such prejudiced actors must go. Back-door operators like BJP IT Cell who target accounts for suspension will also be relegated to sleeping dogs. How much Musk can free the bird from its cage remains to be seen. The GOI has never been a supporter of free speech. Modi is no different from Congress except that he doesn’t respond to any criticism at all but his goons do that job with different methods. How much freedom Musk will impart to Twitter is a matter of wait and watch. One thing for sure, though, the exit of Evil from Twitter certainly should be celebrated.
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