Democratic Institutions
'Whole Business Will Close,' Says Twitter in Plea; Karnataka HC Issues Notice to Govt https://thewire.in/law/twitter-challenges-union-government-blocking-orders-karnataka-high-court
In a July 5 petition, Twitter had challenged several blocking orders from the MEITY on grounds that they do not merit blocking under Section 69A of the IT Act, and that they represent 'excessive use' of power by the government.
Rohtagi also submitted that as per the platform’s rules, users must be provided with reasons for why their accounts have been blocked and that the Union government has failed to provide reasons for their blocking orders.
“We are answerable to the account-holders why their accounts are blocked. If this continues, my whole business will close,” Live Law quoted Rohtagi as saying...
The Union government has consistently asked Twitter to remove content and block certain accounts or hashtags at different times over the past four years. However, the stand-off between the tech company and the government came to a head in February last year when the MEITY reportedly told Twitter to block around 250 handles, most of them posting regular updates on the nation-wide farmers’ protests that were underway at the time.
The handles which were blocked included those of Caravan magazine, as well as accounts which were regularly disseminating information regarding the protests, such as @tractor2twittr, the official handle of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha, and others.
Although Twitter initially complied with the ban, it restored most of the accounts by the end of the same day (February 1); a move which reportedly drew the ire of the government, following which the stand-off intensified.
How a Journalist Was Arrested Amid India’s Worsening Press Freedom by Taniya Roy. 21/07/2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TcMBLQ79Xw&t=12s
Journalist and Alt News co-founder Mohammad Zubair was arrested on June 27 in connection with a tweet posted in 2018. A Delhi court granted him bail on July 15. Apart from this case, several other charges have also been filed against him in Uttar Pradesh. The state has topped the list of criminal cases filed against journalists. For instance, journalist Siddique Kappan was arrested in October 2018 by the UP police while on his way to cover the Hathras gangrape. He is still in prison. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on July 20 granted bail to Zubair in all cases. The arrest of Zubair and several other journalists has come at a time when India’s press freedom ranking has fallen to 150 out of 180 countries this year, the lowest ever. The ‘vicious cycle’ of arrests and harassment, as quoted by the Supreme Court, comes against the backdrop of rising fake news in India.
"Twitter Thinks Their Policy Is Superior To India's Sovereign Laws": Voyager Infosec Director https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S3LGDyeKfU Jul 6, 2022 "Twitter's message is that their policy is superior to our sovereign laws, and their institutional setups or Jack Dorsey will act as a viceroy and his decision will be final," said Jiten Jain, director of Voyager Infosec.
https://countercurrents.org/2022/07/confronting-the-medias-crisis-of-trust-some-candid-thoughts/
Lack of trust in the news media is the news these days. The reasons are; rampant misinformation, the rise of authoritarian governments, the dominance of social media, etc. are adding to the lack of trust in the news media. To discuss these issues, experts gathered in Honolulu at the recent East-West Center International Media Conference. Here I am putting up a summary of the different thoughts by the panelists to make the subject easy to grasp.
“Exposing the sources of misinformation and disinformation is one part of the battle, more than that the need is to understand the demand side because if we don’t understand why people consume misinformation there will be little appreciation for quality journalism.”
“The other fact is many people distrust journalists and this also is a factor negatively affecting media credibility. Probably this is because media has gone beyond the control of the media professionals and restoring news media trust is a daunting task. Journalists have to increase their credibility with their audience so that people do not go to other sources looking for news.
07/07/2022
read more
Statement by Altnews
https://twitter.com/AltNews/status/1544280484154265601?t=lJVoAP0PTwxg64qO-PhzBw&s=19
Other links:
Explanation by Razor Pay:
Subcategories
Fourth Estate
For Free speech and Media Rights see Fundamental Rights under Civil Liberties