India Orders Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down
As a Covid-19 outbreak rages, India Orders Critical Social Media Posts to Be Taken Down.
With a devastating second wave of Covid-19 sweeping across India and lifesaving supplemental oxygen in short supply, India’s government on Sunday said it ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to take down dozens of social media posts critical of its handling of the pandemic.
The order was aimed at roughly 100 posts that included critiques from opposition politicians and calls for Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, to resign. The government said that the posts could incite panic, used images out of context, and could hinder its response to the pandemic.
Squabbles over online speech in India are growing common. The Indian government, controlled by Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has become increasingly aggressive at stifling dissent.
Record Deaths
India set records for deaths for four consecutive days before the media ban.
Modi now bans social media reports shows overflowing hospital beds, oxygen shortages, and other gruesome images.
On Censorship
Because you know it’s easier to take down tweets than it is to ensure oxygen supplies.
Via Shuddhabrata Sengupta
“On the Centre’s request, Twitter takes down 52 tweets criticising India’s handling of the pandemic”
— Aftab Alam (@aftabistan) April 25, 2021
A state minister accuses Prime Minister Modi of downplaying the seriousness of the pandemic. The gvt orders Twitter to take it down. It’s hard to imagine more core political speech at a more serious time.
India v. platforms is the most imp battle for online speech right now https://t.co/0FfKmD518G
— Evelyn Douek (@evelyndouek) April 24, 2021
What’s the Real Score?
Undercounting Covid deaths in India is now a lead international headline. I hope to see which legacy Indian newspaper will have the courage to play it as the banner headline. pic.twitter.com/07gU6FEGoE
— Vinod K. Jose (@vinodjose) April 25, 2021
Apparently, if one cannot see such images, then they did not happen.
Sorry Modi, it does not work that way. In fact, I suggests it works in the opposite manner.
When news is suppressed, many people are likely to believe data is worse than reported.
Do You Believe India’s Covid-19 Death Stats?
— Mike “Mish” Shedlock (@MishGEA) April 25, 2021
Do you believe India’s “official” death counts?
I don’t and with India I never did. But with Modi suppressing reports one has to ask: What else are you lying about?
Mish
Why did my comment calling you stupi* white man with “white mans burden” deleted. Since I added a twitter link in there.
Why didn’t mish write an article about greta toolkit fiasco. Just because you can hide behind freedom of speech doesn’t give you the right to spread rumors and lies. During the 911 event did all the news channels start reporting about all the people died immediately after the events.
Mish can complain about free speech as much as he wants, when it is used to spread rumors it will be suppressed. Even in US of A.
350k cases a day would be about the same as 83k a day in the US. Thus, if the official numbers were accurate, it would mean they are still under 1/3 of the US peak. Similarly, 2794 deaths in a day would be like 660 in the US, far under the 4400 the US saw at the peak. If true, this would be no big deal. Given that it apparently is a big deal, they cases are probably at least 4x the numbers reported, and probably higher.
India is the worlds pharma factory. Ironic that they’re so behind in vaccinations and scrambling to secure supply. India was supposed to be the source for Africa ad other 3rd world nations.
Do you just make things up? or are you completely oblivious to the truth?
There are many anti-vaxxers, so people are spreading false stories about vaccine. I dont know if freedom of speech can still be used here.
In the multicultural and connected world governments can’t yet suppress the truth. When COVID first broke out I had a workmate whose parents lived in the burbs of Wuhan. At first he was very worried, but their part of the city wasn’t greatly
affected. They knew of people who died, but no close acquaintances of them got sick. So when folk doubt that the Chinese outbreak was controlled I could see in the face of a son that is was true.
I also saw folk doubting the success of VietNam in suppressing the virus. Again I know from close friends that the cities were locked down, but people were wary and would have stayed off the streets anyway. I could see the live streams and the posts from family. But after a month restrictions were eased, the streets were packed again. Back to chaos, Their success is, so far, real.
Last year the South Asians at work were feeling good about how things were going. These are middle class folk, so in the slums it was probably not so good.
But now in our work group we have a Bangladeshi whose father has died and mother and brother are very sick, in the next group an Indian who lost his mother. Lots of worried family. The Indian outbreak is huge. And affecting Bangladesh and Afghanistan, Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and probably Burma. All of South Asia and into SE Asia.
There is the same kind of censorship in USA and Europe, except that it is not on the same subjects.
Virus is not an election. It cannot be divided on caste lines. It cannot be won over with false promises.It cannot be won over with rhetoric and showmanship or muscle and money-power. It does not seem to like chest-beaters or those who claim victory at half-times. It shows you your place when you think you’re a demi-god. Unfortunately the citizen pays a price. Like in a war…
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube regularly censor and delete content on Covid in the US and elsewhere too. Just try posting on any effective treatment options other than vaccines and watch how quickly your post will disappear. Do it a few times and watch your whole account disappear. India is just catching up.
Is this hydroxy again? If so it deserves to be blocked
You’re funny.
So … censorship is fine, so long as you agree with what is being censored. Got it.
Oh … maybe you missed this study recently … only 29,000 patients.
(Truthfully, although we do use HCQ and zinc mainly for prophylaxis these days, I can tell you that it is not nearly as effective as Ivermectin. Should that be censored as well or are you ok with it?)
Based on the most recent evolutionary virological studies, which focus on the number of variants in host countries, the most likely source of Covid-19 is India, from which it spread to Northern Europe and America’s East and West coasts.
If you make a scientific claim like that you should cite a reputable scientific source to back it up.
If this is true, the problem is not India, but the fact that Northern Europe and America’s East and West coasts let the virus come in. Are there english, brazilian, south-african, indian variants in Taiwan or Vietnam ?
Could you please point us toward those “most legal virological studies” ? I’m sure you must have seen them and not just read about them in a WhatsApp forward !
Are you trying to spread the chinese lies? Are you member of WHO.
Modi is the political equivalent of Trump. At some point he will pay the political price. Besides individuals can still post about how bad it is. Modi cant have it both ways. Just like Trump.
In your dreams. There are elections happening and will find out how he does now.
Like with Trump?
Sorry Modi, it does not work that way. In fact, I suggests it works in the opposite manner.
When news is suppressed, many people are likely to believe data is worse than reported.
The almost vertical line of the graph showing the increase in cases points to the probability of a very dangerous mutation.
Your freedom of speech right do not give you right to speculate. It is just the UK variant. And we know how virulent it is.
Official government sources lie when it suits them. Some media sources lie when it suits them too. They justify it as a “Noble Lie” although it rarely is for noble reasons. When people start to see through there lies that is when governments and some media cry out for some form of news suppression because their lies can’t compete with the truth. When I see a journalist suppressed I immediately check them out. Sometimes they are worthless clunks but sometimes they are reputable journalists who have a passion for the truth and don’t compromise with the powers that be whether in government or private media. I especially follow them because they are the ones who can truly investigate and report what they really see because they are free.
please disregard spelling errors.
Well said Doug
About the spelling errors?
No, about lies and censorship. Government and media lies are generally ‘ends justify the means’ propaganda. Many public officials willingly offer up lies (and the compliant media publishes them) if they believe (rightly or wrongly) the lies will promote behavior that will benefit society. An example: Fauci publicly telling people early last year that masks are harmful, which he later admitted was an attempt to allow healthcare professionals to get better access to masks. The problem is, once you admit to lying, why would anyone intelligent believe anything you say after that?!
It is greatly under-reported.
The recent variations appear to jump past the apparent immunity provided in previous rounds by the the early TB vaccine.
India has a very low level of docters per thousand people, very few hospital beds and a miniscule number of ICU beds compared to population.
But a month or so ago, the BJP under Modi passed a resolution stating.. “It can be said with pride,” it read, that “India not only defeated Covid under the able, sensible, committed and visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi, but also infused in all its citizens the confidence to build an Atma Nirbhar Bharat”…….”The party unequivocally hails its leadership for introducing India to the world as a proud and victorious nation in the fight against Covid.”
And just like in the US, the Modi government got behind various “cures” that did not “cure”
The embarassment of an authoritarian, infallible leader over-rides the rights of the indivuals.
Atma Nirbhar Bharat=self-reliant India
Indians also have a superiority complex about herbal and other forms of medicine and mixing it with religion and thinking it’s working to cure anything. It is part Jimmy Swaggart and part herbal medicine based on thousands of years of no evidence.
Do you have proof for anything you said in your comment? What were the traditional cures that the govt supported?
“Modi now bans social media reports shows overflowing hospital beds, oxygen shortages, and other gruesome images. “
So much for India’s so called democracy. But yet those images are all over CNN/MSNBC/NPR TV shows and more. I never knew that India had so many fat/overweight people! Life must be good. Or are only the wealthy able to eat western junk food getting hit, which is why the censorship is necessary?
I’d wager that the Indian death toll is much higher. But is still a comparatively small number when weighed against the 1.3 billion population.
And what of China, where it seems that they are an island of peace & tranquility in the Covid world, with little reporting on outbreaks or increasing deaths.
Sorry Jojo–it’s not just what people that determines outcome.
Your pet hobby-horse ran away.
..not just what people weigh..
I know you like to hear yourself post but as Mose Allison sang “If you must keep talking, at least try to make it rhyme”
Obesity Worsens Outcomes from COVID-19
Adults with excess weight are at even greater risk during the COVID-19 pandemic:
India is a disaster and hardly the first nation to try and undercount. He’ll states and the Feds tried this when Trump was President
“But with Modi suppressing reports one has to ask: What else are you lying about?”
Most things.
Like the way he lied about the reasons for eliminating the 500 and 1000 rupee notes…which took 86% of the total cash in the country out of circulation overnight.
In some ways, India is the test case for the Trumps and Trump clones of the world. If Modhi can do it and get away with it, then maybe they can too. Populists seem to thrive on lying…the bigger the lie, the more people seem to be ready to believe it, at least among important voting blocs.
Because Trump and republicans are the ones censoring in the US. Give me a break. No one can be that blind to the obvious.
No, Trump and his ilk are the ones taking what I’d characterize as unfair advantage advantage of our American love of free speech, and abusing the privilege.
As Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, the First Amendment doesn’t give you the right to shout “Fire!” in a crowded theater.
At the same time we do have many in the MSM…and your social media whizz kids…who only want free speech for liberals. I get that. But it remains to be seen how much social media freedom of speech is a good thing.
In my book, social media is a big part of the problem. It essentially promotes mindless crowd behavior among people who are just one step higher intellectually than morons…who get all stirred up by anything that reinforces their delusional world views….
What free speech did trump block?
Read for comprehension. I didn’t say he BLOCKED free speech. I said he ABUSED his right to free speech.
They have intentionally understated all along in India, particularly with cases or deaths in the slums. Whatever the count is in the rest of the country, the people are packed together more tightly in the slums and they receive far less medical treatment.
It’s no secret that Modi doesn’t like bad press and has no qualms about shutting down regional internet access (broadband and mobile) to stifle speech, something he does more than ONE HUNDRED times per year! In fact, India accounts for more shutdowns than the rest of the world combined. If people try to speak out, they get silenced.
do you have any proof for it?