Social Media Watch Thread

Mollick.R · Post by **Mollick.R** » 03 Feb 2021 17:52

Govt warns Twitter of consequences for defying orders to block accounts alleging "Farmer Genocide"

MONEYCONTROL NEWS FEBRUARY 03, 2021 / 04:34 PM IST

The Centre on February 3 sent a notice to Twitter for reinstating accounts and Tweets supporting the farmers’ protest despite a directive by the the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to block them for posing a threat to public order.

The notice warns the social media platform of penal action for "non-compliance of directions issued under section 69-A of the IT Act”.

Twitter on February 1 “withheld” multiple accounts on its social media platform, including many tweets with #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide linked with the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi borders against the new contentious central farm laws. The handles were reinstated within hours.
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The fresh notice , issued by the IT ministry says that the as per Indian law, Twitter is an “intermediary” as defined under Section 2[1][w] of the Information Technology Act and provides a platform wherein opinions of persons are communicated across the world and are open for all to see.

"Section 69A of the Act provides jurisdiction to the Central Government in cases wherein it considers it necessary or expedient to direct an intermediary to block for access for public and or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource if the Government is satisfied that the same is necessary or expedient in order to prevent incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to public order," the notice reads.

It also says that the "impracticability or the disproportionality of the said measure cannot be decided by Twitter which is an intermediary bound by the orders of the Central Government.”

The government notice, according to sources, quotes more than half a dozen Supreme Court orders including Constitutional benches as to what is public order and what are the rights of authorities.

Read Full Article Here//
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india ... 40861.html

mappunni · Post by **mappunni** » 03 Feb 2021 19:36

vijayk wrote:https://swarajyamag.com/insta/amid-big- ... sory-board

Tech entrepreneur and Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu has been appointed to the reconstituted National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) led by National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, Strat News Global has reported.

Vembu was recently conferred with the Padma Shri.

Along with Vembu, the other new members of the NSAB include former ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan, IIM Bangalore faculty Anshuman Tripathy, and former ambassador to France and the United States Arun K Singh.

Each member of the NSAB is responsible for bring specialised expertise to the table and is assigned a study, which is then analysed by the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) and ministries for implementation.

Incidentally, Vembu's appointment comes at a time amid widespread fears of rising interference and selective censorship by Big Tech Silicon Valley firms.

Over the years Twitter has been accused of rampantly suspending Right Wing twitter accounts in India and stifling conservative voices globally.

Zoho has a pretty good WhatsApp replacement called Arattai. I see a hint of atmanirbharBharat in bringing in Mr.Vembu. I foresee some sort of replacement for SM from Zoho.

mappunni · Post by **mappunni** » 03 Feb 2021 19:38

Mollick.R wrote:Govt warns Twitter of consequences for defying orders to block accounts alleging "Farmer Genocide"

MONEYCONTROL NEWS FEBRUARY 03, 2021 / 04:34 PM IST

The Centre on February 3 sent a notice to Twitter for reinstating accounts and Tweets supporting the farmers’ protest despite a directive by the the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to block them for posing a threat to public order.

The notice warns the social media platform of penal action for "non-compliance of directions issued under section 69-A of the IT Act”.

Twitter on February 1 “withheld” multiple accounts on its social media platform, including many tweets with #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide linked with the ongoing farmers’ protest at Delhi borders against the new contentious central farm laws. The handles were reinstated within hours.
.
.
The fresh notice , issued by the IT ministry says that the as per Indian law, Twitter is an “intermediary” as defined under Section 2[1][w] of the Information Technology Act and provides a platform wherein opinions of persons are communicated across the world and are open for all to see.

"Section 69A of the Act provides jurisdiction to the Central Government in cases wherein it considers it necessary or expedient to direct an intermediary to block for access for public and or cause to be blocked for access by the public any information generated, transmitted, received, stored or hosted in any computer resource if the Government is satisfied that the same is necessary or expedient in order to prevent incitement to the commission of any cognizable offence relating to public order," the notice reads.

It also says that the "impracticability or the disproportionality of the said measure cannot be decided by Twitter which is an intermediary bound by the orders of the Central Government.”

The government notice, according to sources, quotes more than half a dozen Supreme Court orders including Constitutional benches as to what is public order and what are the rights of authorities.

Read Full Article Here//
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india ... 40861.html

Hope this does not turn into another "Kadi Nindha" event and would be glad to see some of the Twitter India leadership seeing insides of a jail cell for a week or two. Another thing would be cancelling OCI/Visa of Vijaya who happens to be the head of legal and Twitter.

Suraj · Post by **Suraj** » 03 Feb 2021 22:49

KJo wrote:TW, FB, WA, LI are the giants and undisputed leaders in their space. Some are not first movers, but they correctly read the market and came up with the best product. It would need a big jolt to change this from here on. Google tried with G+ and failed miserably.

I am not convinced that merely having Indian versions of the same apps will make a difference. Most of these apps are just copies, some even with similar sounding names. They add a feature or two and call it innovation. That will not fly anymore.

For Indian apps, the only way I see forward is if top folks like Modi and others completely switch to these apps.

None of what you mention are apps. They're personal data platforms. Their value lies in the number of people using it, who are themselves the product because their information is being monetized. Technologically, FB isn't anything great. The UX is crap, they do some decent distributed system work at scale, but nothing that hasn't been done elsewhere, and cannot be done with open source stacks.

Their power lies fundamentally in the userbase. Cut off the user base, cut off the ability to connect data about the user base, and they lose power. Take FB. I think it's a little late to replace it with a wholly domestic platform. Perhaps Jio could do that. BUT, GoI can mandate laws that prohibit FB from
a) ever monetizing any data of an India-based user. They can hold content that runs their frontend, but can never process it and sell it - not in India, not anywhere.
b) holding data of India-based users on servers outside India

What will FB do in response ? That's easy - they'll threaten to leave India. They'll argue they'll be forced to charge access fees. That's fine. These requirements are very simple . Any Indian competitor can thrive with those restrictions, particularly if they focus on multi-language support and UX. But FB can't thrive with that - their raisin dieter is the access to that data and the ability to store and process it elsewhere.

The ongoing Apple-FB spat is illustrative. Apple is doing literally this - siloing out and cutting off FBs ability to monetize the data. That's exactly what Indian policymaking should focus on.

'Ban {insert SM platform}' is not a very smart idea. It plays into the other side's hands. Focusing on the data collection and monetization details beneath the hood is where the real meat for policymaking is.

There's often been references to Government not yet having had policy for SM giants. I don't want to criticize them much on this count. No one has a good policy yet. However, I hope GoI focuses on the above when it comes to developing policy here.

vimal · Post by **vimal** » 03 Feb 2021 23:50

SM is now deciding arthiya protests

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 04 Feb 2021 14:28

Can't say I disagree with this statement. Some platforms (thinking of Twitter here at the moment) either acting in bad faith or unable to comply due to technical limitations should not be allowed to dictate terms on the access to the Internet for all citizens.

U.S. Criticizes India’s Internet Curbs

criticized the internet restrictions at protest sites. “We recognize that unhindered access to information, including the internet, is fundamental to the freedom of expression and a hallmark of a thriving democracy.”

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 04 Feb 2021 16:12

vera_k wrote:Can't say I disagree with this statement. Some platforms (thinking of Twitter here at the moment) either acting in bad faith or unable to comply due to technical limitations should not be allowed to dictate terms on the access to the Internet for all citizens.

U.S. Criticizes India’s Internet Curbs

criticized the internet restrictions at protest sites. “We recognize that unhindered access to information, including the internet, is fundamental to the freedom of expression and a hallmark of a thriving democracy.”

or supreme national interest and urgent national security tops all else in a crisis situation is another way to go.

you do realize that currently there is an ongoing globally leveraged attempt to upstage the legally elected and undisputedly democratic govt and maybe the BIF are also hoping for a regime change along the way as they try to shoehorn their version of democracy on India

what say do we have about anything in the US that we become so concerned about what some ameriki whitey says about us

Indian problems will have Indian solutions, no

our democracy can and will thrive only if it does so in an uncontiminated Indian milieu, and not so much in an obviously transplanted, superimposed anglicized sickular way that has no relevance to us.

so we should simply tell the ameriki whitey that their objections have been "noted" and move on to do what's best for India and that is not the repeal of the farm laws because 10 odd punjabi "farmers" are asking for the repeal.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 04 Feb 2021 19:38

https://swarajyamag.com/ideas/bringing- ... e-platform
Bringing Twitter To Heel Will Require Prime Minister And His Party To Quit The Platform

The question is: why is a vulnerable platform like Twitter able to brazenly flout Indian laws?

My answer is just a reasonable guess, and that guess relates to how much the Prime Minister and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are dependent on Twitter for their messaging. The PM, with 65.3 million followers, and many BJP or Sangh handles, use Twitter to make up for their relative lack of voice in the mainstream media, and especially international media, which is uniformly anti-Hindu and anti-India.

It is difficult to call Twitter to account if the ruling party itself is so dependent on it for disseminating information and comment.

The Prime Minister should set himself a time limit to create an alternative national micro-blogging and other platforms that will be fully subject to Indian laws, and not be beholden to unaccountable tech platforms. One year should be a good time horizon for this.

mappunni · Post by **mappunni** » 04 Feb 2021 20:18

My take is tomorrow evening the trailer is going to play when the Twitter herd in India will be arrested in as many sections as possible so that the gang can cool their heels in the jail over the weekend. They will try moving Supreme court which I think is the weak spot, unless the sections are charged are related to National security, they won't get bailed out.

Then I expect an Indian microblogging platform to be released in a matter of months if not weeks and the PM and the rest of the folks and GOI moving over to it. Hint: Sridhar Vembu Check out their app Arattai on both App and Play store, very slick and well executed.

This will make Twitter also ran in India of the leftist libtard elites.

mukkan · Post by **mukkan** » 04 Feb 2021 21:37

Government goes about banning Chinese apps but seems completely blind to bigger threats from monopoly controlled SM. The most popular messaging app has 98% share of the market which is even used by governments and courts of the country. If government don't encourage desi infrastructure for social media, India will continue to be colony controlled by outside masters.

https://www.news18.com/news/opinion/far ... 88184.html

chetak · Post by **chetak** » 05 Feb 2021 01:11

posted from the political thread

this tweet was made by the kerala congress and it is directly from the thunberg playbook and it is dated the 18 of Jan

they have deleted this tweet and a govt investigation is ongoing as to how the pappu congis in kerala did this on the 18 and how much of coordination there was with the BIF and how did they communicate

that the congis are neck deep in the conspiracy is without any shred of doubt

greta ke tool kit se uthaya aur chhap diya: word by word.

image via opIndia

Srutayus · Post by **Srutayus** » 05 Feb 2021 03:09

My response to Meena Harris has brought out the Khalistanis en masse.
https://twitter.com/srutayus/status/1357412862252224519

mukkan · Post by **mukkan** » 05 Feb 2021 22:36

Any update on GOI's ultimatum to Twitter? Its almost two days and no effect.

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 06 Feb 2021 15:09

mukkan wrote:Any update on GOI's ultimatum to Twitter? Its almost two days and no effect.

Zero zilch

Rudradev · Post by **Rudradev** » 06 Feb 2021 15:18

Giving an ultimatum & failing to act is the only thing worse than doing nothing at all.

Pucca Javadekar strategery. That man is so pathetic it's not even worth being angry with him.

asgkhan · Post by **asgkhan** » 06 Feb 2021 16:17

So we have one more rice bag convert from mallustan who is busy fingering Hyundai Creta's face book account.

https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/g ... 2021-02-06

Ramu · Post by **Ramu** » 06 Feb 2021 17:45

I am trying something at my personal capability. I am coming out of WhatsApp groups where atleast one person forwards a leftist meme.
I am telling them they have freedom to post garbage. And I am free to not let it reach me.
Same for twitter and Facebook. Anyone doing leftist shit can't reach me including my own brother.
I am beginning to understand someone is paying someone else 2.5 crores just to reach me. I want that 2.5 crores not that free shitty meme or some political gaslighting cr@p.

Thakur_B · Post by **Thakur_B** » 06 Feb 2021 17:58

^^ Go to r/chodi, get kadak memes, bhagwa pill the fence sitters. Far more effective.

nvishal · Post by **nvishal** » 06 Feb 2021 18:53

Rudradev wrote:Giving an ultimatum & failing to act is the only thing worse than doing nothing at all.

Pucca Javadekar strategery. That man is so pathetic it's not even worth being angry with him.

Myanmar coup banned instagram and Facebook a days back. Today they shutdown the internet. It's bad press.

I think the Indian courts should come forward and levy a fine and block twitter for 6 months as a form of punishment. Central govt should not act directly from the front lines.

BTW, twitter is not that popular in India in terms of pop density. Most indians are on facebook, whatsApp and telegram.

mukkan · Post by **mukkan** » 06 Feb 2021 21:37

In US also twitter is used mostly by politicians, journalists, celebrities. Though twitter is not used by ordinary folks, it has the power to set the agenda. Twitter screenshots are shared in whatsapp, shown in TV news etc. So ignoring any of these social media platforms because its not directly used by majority of people who vote will be a bad idea.

vimal · Post by **vimal** » 06 Feb 2021 21:53

Upset with Tendulkar, netizens apologise to Sharapova

https://m.rediff.com/amp/sports/report/ ... 210205.htm

m_saini · Post by **m_saini** » 06 Feb 2021 22:03

God of cricket vs some putin-loving russian athlete who was banned for substance abuse.....

hmmm lefties sure know how to pick em

kit · Post by **kit** » 06 Feb 2021 22:18

kit · Post by **kit** » 06 Feb 2021 23:37

kit · Post by **kit** » 06 Feb 2021 23:51

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 07 Feb 2021 02:53

Another angle that many overlook when it comes to social media platforms that allow income generation is that of illegal money movements. YouTube can not only demonetize indic channels but can also do reverse to BIF. Not that different from many garbage movies, shows, etc. cashing in big. Only to further BIF causes.

https://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/ ... -companies

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:20

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:21

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:23

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:24

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:26

kit · Post by **kit** » 07 Feb 2021 14:31

While everybody's focus is on Greta and the deleted toolkit, #String is bringing the focus back on #Rihanna.

The RIHANNA-SOROS-DEMOCRAT nexus is really deep & it dates back to 2012.

darshan · Post by **darshan** » 07 Feb 2021 21:31

Twitter’s Public Policy Director For India And South Asia Mahima Kaul Resigns
https://swarajyamag.com/insta/twitters- ... ul-resigns
...
Kaul presently oversees Twitter India's relationship with policymakers, elected officials, government agencies, non-government organisations (NGOs) and also the direct policy programmes in these areas.

Having previously led the cyber and news media initiatives at New Delhi based think tank Observer Research Foundation (ORF) in the capacity of a fellow, Kaul made a career switch in 2015 and joined Twitter India. It should be noted that Kaul was Twitter's public policy director for not only India but also South Asia.
...

vera_k · Post by **vera_k** » 08 Feb 2021 04:05

nvishal wrote:I think the Indian courts should come forward and levy a fine and block twitter for 6 months as a form of punishment. Central govt should not act directly from the front lines.

The steps used to take Parler offline can be used as well where local infrastructure providers take the platforms offline for breach of contract. Will have to wait until new contracts are put in place before taking this route.

mukkan · Post by **mukkan** » 08 Feb 2021 08:34

Another one from government.

Amid row over 257 a/cs, Centre asks Twitter to block 1,178 more accounts

After bringing down the 257 accounts that were mentioned in ..
Twitter had swiftly unblocked most of them, angering officials at the IT ministry — headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad ..

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ind ... 740666.cms

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 08 Feb 2021 09:33

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/514761-greta-t ... s-protest/

Activism for hire? By ditching climate change for Sikh separatism, Greta Thunberg shows her naivety and erodes her credibility

Although it seems Greta’s found her ‘what’s next,’ maybe she should have been a little more discerning. Because she’s climbed the fence, crossed the field and stepped straight into a huge cowpat, by taking sides in a deeply divisive farmers’ protest currently creating a stir in India.

Farm workers have taken to the streets over government plans to attract much needed investment to the agriculture sector in the nation of nearly 1.4 billion people. They say they fear that encouraging private investment would leave them at risk of exploitation from large and foreign corporations.

While this is certainly a domestic issue for India to consider, the farmers have attracted attention from international busybodies looking to exploit the movement for their own ends.

The project we were working on together – it was all about Brexit, rather than creating Sikh homelands – came to nothing, but clearly he’s found plenty to occupy his time. He has certainly been noticed in New Delhi, where police are considering charges of sedition and criminal conspiracy against the promoters of the PJF toolkit – such as Greta Thunberg – for its role in “a call to wage economic, social, cultural and regional war against India.”

PJF seems to be heading up the propaganda war for the farmers’ protests, obviously hoping the numbers will translate into support for the Khalistan campaign. At least that’s my guess.

And while the organisation coyly admits on its website that it is working on the farmers’ protests in India, it does seem to have hijacked part of the campaign and is coercing supporters into pushing its goal of Sikh independence with the help of celebrities in its orbit. Celebrities like Greta Thunberg and pop superstar Rihanna.

Indian officials believe Dhaliwal’s Skyrocket company paid Rihanna $2.5 million to post her support for the farmers’ protest earlier this week. With more than 100 million followers on Twitter, that is serious social media reach and, you’d have to say, worth every cent.

There’s no suggestion Greta – with a comparatively pale 4.8 million Twitter followers – was paid for her help in sharing the protest’s activist documents. But when there’s cash for endorsement, or even the stink of it, hovering around activism, then the motives and the message suddenly become incredibly murky.

How would the world have felt if a then 16-year-old Greta’s famous upbraiding of the United Nations – “You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you! You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words” – had been paid-for by renewable energy giant Siemens, or Coca-Cola?

The young Swede needs to distance herself from this off-piste exercise, pronto. What does Sikh separatism have to do with the school protests she pioneered, or climate change, for that matter?

vijayk · Post by **vijayk** » 08 Feb 2021 09:36

vera_k wrote:
nvishal wrote:I think the Indian courts should come forward and levy a fine and block twitter for 6 months as a form of punishment. Central govt should not act directly from the front lines.
The steps used to take Parler offline can be used as well where local infrastructure providers take the platforms offline for breach of contract. Will have to wait until new contracts are put in place before taking this route.

I hope they have a strategy and they are building a case. Hope Sridhar Vembu is leading the strategy.

They should move to another platform and bring in legislation to bring transparency to the SM platforms.

Modi should leave the platform along with entire BJP leaders.

asgkhan · Post by **asgkhan** » 08 Feb 2021 12:56

Ban twitter and monitor facebook and whatsapp heavily. Why are private companies allowed to overrule sarkaari rules?

Better, jail that vijaya gaddey retard for a year minus any bail... The buggers in the Indian dept will put down their papers.

Keep escalating it and tighten the screws completely 6 months before 2024.

uddu · Post by **uddu** » 08 Feb 2021 14:40

It's time to start fining them like how EU fines these Tech. And then as the kind of activities keep repeating one day, complete ban.

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 08 Feb 2021 17:09

I feel atrongly that we should not overreact in the face of intl. social media mouthings by parasitical "celebrities" ,pop stars,***** stars et al, who like vultures and parasites feed upon the miseries of others for their personal advancement. So too with the supposedly intellectual elite busybodies like Meena Harris, basking in the glow of her Veep aunt. Let us not give them the " oxygen of publicity" and only increase the decibel level in cyberspace.

More importantly to vehemently attack mano-a-mano are the spoutingsfrom mischief-makers like Trudeau Jr. and officials in govt. of so-calledfriendly nations. That is blatant intereference invour affairs.Their ambassadors and HCs can be summoned,the riot act read out to them ,even packed off home if the insult is exceptionally offensive. Our task foremost is to resolve the issue.The PM today made an outreach again to thd farmers and Oppn. Let's hope forthe best.Resolution will shut up firangi tongues.