Twitter once again uses its censor scissors, this time it hurts Congress

Twitter and other social media platforms could be in trouble for videos of ruckus in parliament as it violates parliamentary privileges.

@prashanthamine

Mumbai: Big Tech censorship has once again reared its ugly head this time in India with Twitter India locking up twitter accounts of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and at least 50 odd Congress leaders who had retweeted their leaders post on the alleged rape of a nine-year-old girl in New Delhi.

But what is even more alarming is the trending and viral videos of unruly scenes of the ruckus inside the Rajya Sabha that are doing the rounds on social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube.

As per Parliamentary Procedures and Privileges laid down in Kaul & Shakdher, taking pictures or videos of the house from inside or the galleries is strictly forbidden and can invite strict legal and penal action. It all depends on what view the presiding officers of both the Lok Sabha, Speaker Om Birla and Chairman of the Rajya Sabha who is also the Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu take on the entire issue.

This is not the first time that the social media giant has tried to rough-shod over even heads of state in enforcing actions that raise questions over whether it is above the law of the land.

At the height of the transition phase of the former US president Donald Trump, the Capitol Hill violence of January 6 earlier this year prompted Big Tech Social Media giants like Twitter and Facebook to permanently suspend social media accounts, stopping short of accusing the then serving US president that his posts led to the Capitol Hill incident.

If that was not enough in October 2020, both Facebook and Twitter both gagged the New York Times after the latter dropped a bombshell that Joe Biden when he was the vice president (2009-2017) had met with an adviser of Burisma, a Ukranian company in which his son Hunter Biden was the director. The NYT twitter handle was for some time locked, terming it as “unsafe” before it was unlocked few days later.

On June 25 earlier this year, Twitter had the gall to temporarily deny access to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Union Minister for Electronics and Information and Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad. Attempts to make Twitter fall in line with Government of India dictates failed to achieve the desired results. Sources in the BJP argue that it was Prasad’s weak-kneed handling of the Twitter issue was probably one of the reasons that Prasad was dropped in the recent union cabinet reshuffle.

On December 2, 2020, Twitter tagged BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya’s tweeted video on farmers’ protest as “manipulated media”. The other BJP leaders who faced the wrath of Twitter’s high-handed censorship included BJP Rajya Sabha MP Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, Priti Gandhi, Sunil Deodhar among others.

While Facebook, Instagram, YouTube complied with Government of India directives on compliance with the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, Twitter followed much later.

Meanwhile, Congress has urged Twitter not to succumb to the pressures of the BJP led central government after the social media giant locked its leaders account in connection with the Delhi rape and murder case of a nine-year-old girl.

The BJP on the other hand was quick to point out that it was the Congress on May 20 earlier this year in a letter to Twitter had demanded permanent suspension twitter accounts of BJP president J P Nadda, BJP union minister Smriti Irani, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra among others in the Toolkit controversy.

The BJP has slammed the Congress for allegedly violating the provisions of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO Act). National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) chairperson Priyank Kanoongo did acknowledge that the NCPCR had indeed sent notices to the Congress leaders.

On the other hand, world leaders have been unanimous in raising concern over the Big Tech censorship. Russian opposition activist Alexei Navalny remarked that Twitter does not take any action against anyone even after receiving death threats. German Chancellor Angela Merkel too termed the Big Tech censorship as “problematic”.

French Minister for Finance Bruno Le Maire said that the tech giants are part of a digital oligarchy which is a threat to democracy. Norway’s left-wing Labour Party leader Jonas Gahr Støre said that Big Tech censorship threatens political freedom around the world. The Australian government called the ban on Trump an act of “censorship.”