India threatens to arrest employees of Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter
India is experiencing an authoritarian escalation that in recent months has involved a series of sanctions on products and Chinese technologies, such as TikTok. Since farmers began criticizing and promoting demonstrations over new agrarian rules, the government has raised its tone and enacted rules to curb the exchange of information in the virtual environment. In a new anti-democratic gesture, Indian authorities are now threatening to arrest employees of Facebook and Twitter.
The intent of the threat is clear: to make companies take it seriously. new laws that came into force in recent weeks and require platforms to remove content flagged by the government as inappropriate within 24 hours. With the legislative changes in India, authorities believe that protests will no longer gain repercussion, since public agents request the removal of critical messages, incitement to new protests, or records of these demonstrations.
In an attempt to show that it is not joking, the Indian government even had a list of Facebook and Twitter employees that it could arrest if the arbitrary law was not followed. In response, the two social networks passed on data on requests fulfilled. Mark Zuckerberg's platform reportedly fulfilled 50% of the requests, while Twitter reportedly deleted only 1% of the messages.
WhatsApp may be the biggest “problem”
Still, the government's biggest concern may be WhatsApp: the tool is extremely popular in India and encrypts messages end-to-end, preventing tracking by the service itself. It wouldn't be the first time the messenger has would be the center of attention, since fake news problems caused huge headaches for the country a few years ago.
While the current situation is one of widespread tension, thousands of farmers are still on the streets protesting against the new rules for local agriculture. The case has already exploded internationally, and perhaps India's censorship measures will be fruitless in their objective. The country, however, has no history of backing down from its decisions, and so it would not be surprising if India arrested employees of Facebook and Twitter.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. 9to5Mac e RTL News
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