Digital Democracy

GoI issues final notice to Twitter in connection with new IT rules compliance. Govt warns of legal consequences if compliance ignored . https://www.financialexpress.com/industry/technology/govt-issues-final-notice-to-twitter-to-comply-with-it-rules/2265717/   June 05, 2021 "The government on Saturday issued a notice to Twitter giving it one last chance to “immediately” comply with the new IT rules and warned that failure to adhere to the norms will lead to the platform losing exemption from liability under the IT Act.

"Twitter has not informed about the details of the Chief Compliance Officer as required under the Rules,” it said.

"Also, resident grievance officer and the nodal contact person nominated by the company is not an employee of Twitter Inc in India as prescribed in the rules, the ministry said and added that office address of Twitter Inc as mentioned by the company “is that of a law firm in India, which is not as per the rules”."

LIABILITY OF ISPS & INTERMEDIARY IN INDIA https://indiancaselaws.files.wordpress.com/2014/04/cyber-defamation-liabilities-of-internet-service-providers-isps-and-intermediary.pdf

 As per Section 79 of the IT Act, ISPs are not liable for any third party information, data, or communication link made available or hosted by them so long as-

1.their function is limited to only providing access to communication system;

2.they do not-(a)initiate transmission;(b)select the receiver of the transmission, and(c)select or modify the information contained in the transmission

3.they exercise duediligence in their duties and adhere to any guidelines which may be prescribed

However, ISPs can be held liable in the following situations-

1.If they have conspired, abetted or induced in the unlawful act,
2.If, they fail to expeditiously remove or disable access to any information, data or communication link upon receiving the knowledge or on being notified by appropriate Government agency that such information, data or communication link is being used to commit unlawful act without interfering with the evidence

Are we going to see a slew of laws and rules to "regulate" fact checkers? I can bet that the powers that be will frame the laws in such a way that even private fact checkers, like Alt News will be brought into the fray. Two weeks ago, when they factchecked and showed teh difference between the tool kit logo, and the fake one put out by the BJP, the attention of the public was diverted to the power of these "western" IT companies to label content as Manipulated data. They wanted "transparency..
If for example BOT fact checkers algorithm is transparent, then those who have access to it, like the government will be able to bye pass the logic. Many of you would have noticed that in many trolling comments, you will find strange spellings word break, punctuation marks.. all these are method to avoid the checks of the BOTS.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/covid-vaccine-facebook-takes-down-pib-factcheck-coronavirus-death-7344813 The Blocking of the PIB fact check on the claim attributed to Luc Montagnier that those who get vaccinated would die within two years and the unblocking by FB & Insta has also led to " the IT Ministry raising concerns about the lack of transparency in the appointment of fact-checkers. In internal meetings with other government departments who had flagged the issue, the Ministry is learnt to have assured the officials of being “aware of the issue”.

“Both the platforms claim to have robust fact-checking mechanisms in place. When we reached out to them on this, they said that this was done inadvertently since a machine flagged it as false news. We have asked them as to why it was not cross-checked by a human fact checker,” an IT Ministry official said."

Staya Hindi discusses the changing relationship between social media and the parties. https://youtu.be/Fx1XpEcNM-A?t=1245

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dZ_lvDgevk

Press Release
Delhi for Farmers Condemns Twitter for Suspending the DFF Twitter Handle
26 May 2021
While twitterati was concerned about the possible ban of Twitter in India, Twitter was busy suspending an account created less than 24 hours ago. Delhi for farmers is a solidarity of Trade Unions, human rights activists, women’s movements and other concerned citizens who support the farmer’s movement. As the farmer’s movement completes six months of sit-in, DFF created a twitter handle to talk about the problems faced by farmers. A press release and a couple of retweets later, we find the account suspended in less than 24 hours.
This anti-democratic move of Twitter speaks volumes of their policy to cater to governments and suppress democratic voices. Dear Twitter, speaking in support of farmers is not cautionary activity that needs to be shut down. Nor is speaking up against capitalism or corporatization of the economy. Suspending an account will not stop the observation of Black Day by thousands of supporters. We will find other platforms.
The suspension of the account will definitely question the loyalty of Twitter. It will force people to question your intention and motivation. We will be forced to ask if the giving of millions of dollars as aid to a right wing, proto-fascist group was a mere accident. We will question your claim to be a platform for democratic voices. We do hope you understand the responsibility of running a social media platform. Social media is supposed to be an alternative to government media. Over the years we have not seen the suspension of any accounts that spread social polarization or stalking women. Even accounts that sold women were not suspended for criminal content!!
We reiterate, the suspension of an account in solidarity with a democratic movement is misusage of power and anti-democratic. As a platform that is meant to support the voices of the marginalizes, please get your priorities right. Revoke the suspension of @DFF_RFL immediately. You owe an apology to the solidarity movement.

Poonam Kaushik (9811136242)
Mayukh Biswas ( 98744 09081)
Coordinators, Delhi for farmers

AICCTU, AIDSO, AIDWA, AIDYO, AIFTU (New), AILU, AIMSS, AISA, AITUC, AIUTUC, ANHAD, BSCEM, Collective, CITU, CSW, CTF, DASTAK, DSF, DSMM, DSU, DTF, DYFI, ICTU, IFTU, IFTU (Sarwahara), IMK, IMS, JFME,Jan Natya Manch, JNUSU, Khet Mazdoor Union, KYS, LPF, MEC, MEK, NFIW, Nishant Natya Manch, NTUI, SEWA, PDSU, Pinjra Tod, PMSF, Pragatisheel MS, Purogami MS, PACHHAAS Revolutionary Culture Forum,RYA,Swaraj Abhiyan, Saheli, SFI, TUCC, TUCI, UTUC

'Manipulated Media' Controversy: Government Vs Twitter  https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-manipulated-media-controversy-government-vs-twitter/383352  this is the not the first time a post by a BJP leader or celebrity supporter has come under a cloud. This has also reopened the global debate over “fake posts” and free speech, with the right-wing often accusing social media platforms of being leaning towards the left and liberal. https://www.opindia.com/2020/12/us-elections-facebook-twitter-interfere-indian-elections-why-2024-left-wing-bias/ With Twitter admitting that it has a left-bias, it becomes evident that what they did, and got away with, during the US elections was only a blue-print of the times to come. 

https://www.opindia.com/2021/05/twitter-civilisational-war-narendra-modi-global-left-woke/ Though Tharoor had some early troubles, Twitter remained a nice playground for liberals until after the ‘other side’ started using it really effectively. This shift didn’t take too much time actually. By 2011, along with Anna Hazare DP sporting youngsters, Twitter was densely inhabited by the ‘Hindutva types’ too.

The platform democratized the narrative. People who had no chance of getting an article published in a mainstream media outlet earlier could now get a distribution platform that was fast matching the reach of the mainstream media. Not just reach, even impact. It broke all barriers that existed in the mainstream media publishing – of language (primarily of style), of access (you didn’t need to know an editor or hire a PR agency to get an audience), and most importantly, of ideology (you didn’t need to toe the same old liberal line to get published). n August 2012, the then Government of India blocked a bunch of Twitter handles – many were ‘Hindutva types’ among those blocked – it remains one of the earliest attempts to censor Twitter by the government. The UPA government simply bypassed Twitter and asked the ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to block access to those Twitter accounts. It created a massive furor, but it also had tacit support from some quarters of liberals.