India orders Twitter to take down tweets criticizing COVID-19 handling

The Indian government has ordered Twitter to take down dozens of tweets that are critical of India’s handling of the COVID-19 second wave, as infections broke the world record for a third consecutive day. Twitter’s spokeswoman told Reuters that the platform has withheld some of the tweets after the legal request by the Indian government.

Twitter disclosed on Lumen database, a Harvard University project, that the government made an emergency order to censor the tweets. It revealed that 21 tweets were mentioned, including from a lawmaker named Revnath Reddy, a minister in the state of West Bengal named Moloy Ghatak and a filmmaker named Avinash Das. Reuters said the government cited the Information Technology Act, 2000 law.

“When we receive a valid legal request, we review it under both the Twitter Rules and local law,” the Twitter spokeswoman said. “If the content violates Twitter’s rules, the content will be removed from the service. If it is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of the Twitter Rules, we may withhold access to the content in India only.”

The spokeswoman also said that the platform had notified the account holders directly about withholding their content and informed them that it had received a legal order pertaining to their tweets.

Criticism and Pleas for Help on Social Media

Besides tweets and posts critical of the government’s handling of the second wave of infections, there are pleas for help seeking medical and financial assistance. On Instagram, one message screams, “Mumbai please help! Lungs damaged due to pneumonia infection. In need of ICU bed.” Another reads “Plasma urgently required for treatment of COVID patient in Max Hospital, Delhi.” And another “Urgently needed Tocilizumab injection. Please DM if you know of stock in and around Delhi.”

Whether its Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or Telegram people’s cries of helplessness is very much evident. It gives a peek into the crisis that the second wave of infections has brought in. Family members and friends of COVID-19 patients are either seeking oxygen, hospital beds or medicines. The desperate cries, hoping someone in authority will respond with a speed remedy, gives an insight into the crisis that has engulfed the country.

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Surging Cases

The number of cases across the country has been on rise in the past week. India recorded 3,49,391 new COVID-19 cases and 2,767 deaths in the last 24 hours. According to the Union Health Ministry, five states – Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat and Kerala contributes 54% of the cases.