Why Modi govt versus Twitter is like a lovers’ tiff: Law, freedom of speech & what’s at stake

#Twitter #ITAct #ModiGovernment
For more than a decade Twitter was Modi govt’s favourite tech ally, but today the two are at odds over new IT rules. What is the new law, regulation, principle, and what’s at stake? And why it cures passions like a lovers’ tiff, Shekhar Gupta explains in Episode 765 of #CutTheClutter.
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Additional research by Saamiya Laroia and Ronak Tiwari
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Brought to you by @Kia India
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[@ThePrintIndia]

We count on good people to pay for good journalism. Please subscribe to ThePrint here: theprint.in/subscribe/ This includes the link for subscription from overseas too.

[@pramodmorolia3131]

pls make payment option available on youtube, its more convenient and easy..

[@chetanraj]

@@pramodmorolia3131 then KZbin takes a cut from that lol

[@kenedylukram4925]

Shekharj sir pliz talk about section 230 of the 1996 communication Decency act of USA in this regard where experts are stressing out on the point that because of this provision in US law big tech companies were emerging in the last decade and enable them to grew as global conglomerates. After jan, 6th incident in capitol hill Twitter and Facebook immediately ban a sitting President and there was outrage from the right-wing conservatives including last week's controversial bill in Florida where their Governor De Santis signed in front of FOX News live telecast.

[@raghunathprasad9151]

A CTC on Russian President Vladimir Putin latest statement to the " need to de-dollarize their and the world economic and financial system."

[@vishwassinha569]

Indian Government, Opposition, Institutions, Businesses, Organizations, Media, People, States, Neighbors...they all deserve each other. Now enjoy each other.

[@Abhinav-r8]

Twitter is just a sad place where successful people post useless things and frustrated people fight over it 😑😤

[@pradyutdeka2609]

Sahi bola viru

[@jackshrimp]

True, take a look at Donal Trump( as my good friend NAMO calls him)

[@jackshrimp]

FB is a platform where people who do not have a life , post stuff abt where they went, how many times they went to toilet, what a gr8 time they r having, how many times they f$_ked, Grow up, man, who wants to know your BS activities

[@arpitpatra]

Ky bat boli hai

[@pichumanisankar2617]

It is the perennial hunger for limelight, a few moments (a few lines) of glory.

[@CosmicValkyrie]

If twitter dies, the global IQ level is increase by 40 points.

[@noobbatman9383]

@@abhilashrao5350 🤣🤣🤣

[@lightyork8268]

@@abhilashrao5350 An IQ test is an assessment that measures a range of cognitive abilities and is not connected to proficiency of the English language !😂 Though on a serious note our vast intelligence also allows us to have language which gives us the ability to communicate our intelligence to others by talking, reading, and writing. As the psychologist Steven Pinker put it, language is the “the jewel in the crown of cognition” !!!

[@abhilashrao5350]

@@lightyork8268 similar to how death of a platform will not increase global IQ level, my reply was obviously a Limerick... Obviously untrue statement, which shouldn't be taken seriously and I'm hoping "high IQ" people will get it... Unless they are the one's who believe in the proposition you are claiming I believe in

[@lightyork8268]

@@abhilashrao5350 Boht Hard,Boht Hard!!!! 🙏

[@jaivardhansingh9414]

@@abhilashrao5350 limerick doesn’t mean what you think it means. So much for acting like an English teacher.......

[@vinody]

Twitter wants editorial control but not editorial liability that print editors are subject to. 🤔

[@MrCat-sl6zf]

These are the things you do when you have completely take over the country. Dumbfukery, we are yet to see if they complied, congress asking twitter to ban bjp it cell and bjp asking to ban everyone.

[@tackytaco8133]

It wants editorial control, because it's their company. Don't like it ? Leave it. It does not want editorial liability because it literally does not create the content. Another logical pov would be is to understand that managing every single tweet on Twitter is a logistical nightmare and only banning offensive ones make sense. I don't see anything wrong there.

[@vinody]

@@tackytaco8133 Sure. But they WILL comply with Indian law within the sovereign territory of India; which they are taking their own time doing. The courts didn't seem too pleased by their intransigence. Looking like their version of editorial content control has no chance of being upheld in law.

[@rtam9894]

Is this your words or YT's? You are liable to what you say.

[@abhijitguha494]

SG tells us he gets called “takla” on social media 100s of times a day. We tell SG we love him 🌷🌷🌷.

[@Deathwish_99]

we can also love him and call him takla.. I dont think it is a bianary

[@Deathwish_99]

@@ShivamGupta-sr9zf If you are asking about the rights the constitution gave me the right to say that stuff.. and dont talk like a virtious person like some sort of a sadhu who is so pure and non attached to the world that he dosent make fun of anyone. Some people say it just for fun.. we call one of our friend Mungi(Ant) we call him that because of love and affection not because we hate him ..you should grow up and not complain about what people say on internet

[@arpitpatra]

But he is takla 😂😂

[@iJigarThakkar]

Again loyal dog SG is not sharing all the information, The real f***ng issue is as Russian PMPutin pointed out Twitter and FB are working like a Sovereign nation (which there aren't) and The real culprit JaCK Dorsey (the real a***hole) is being jerk... he is radical left and pushing his personal agenda on the platform... It needs 'Divya drasti' like Sekhar Gupta has to not to look at that...

[@GagandeepSingh-dj8kd]

One simple question- Let's assume toolkit was fake and Twitter was right with manipulated media tag. How many farmers were killed in the 'Modi farmer genocide' trend?? Where was the manipulated media tag?? When Mahathir Mohammed posts violent tweet, his tweet is just deleted. While, however much I disagree with Kangana, why was her account permanently deleted??

[@adibakhtar7309]

😁

[@GagandeepSingh-dj8kd]

@@j5013 As a human, doesn't she have basic rights?? "If we don't demand justice for those we disagree with, then we are being dishonest to ourselves"---Shekhar Gupta(4 Nov, 2020)

[@GagandeepSingh-dj8kd]

@@j5013 Ab usko twitter se ban karne par, humara bharat toh viswaguru ho gaya na??

[@stephenstrange4239]

Arnab is not manipulated media? NDTV is not manipulated media? Everything is manipulated media with an agenda.time to wake up Mr Singh

[@rahulmalik1083]

@@stephenstrange4239 Yup , but then they become liable for the content that is put up on their portals , but social media apps have been dodging the liability till now

[@wonderofu8073]

small suggestion: please add subtitles to your videos. it helps out the viewers with hearing disabilities like myself a lot. thank you.

[@amratpals]

Go to 3dot settings and turn on the caption

[@dr.poojanpatel7625]

I tend to snack while watching a CTC. Subs would help for sure!

[@sanjeevsingh7657]

Click on CC on top right hand of screen. Subtitles will be auto-generated.

[@maitreyakadkol7793]

You can click on the [cc] button near 3 dots. That will give you auto generated captions. It works mostly in English but if he says something in Hindi it screws it up. Or alternatively you could read this article or transcript which is present on the print website available for subscribers.

[@animeshrawat6459]

Today Shekhar Gupta was in a savage mood🤣. "Bring my violins!! " that topped it all 🙌

[@thomsondcruz5456]

Allowing a company based in Palo Alto dictate terms and negotiate with a sovereign is a very slippery slope.

[@shahrukhkotwal7125]

Right now a company based in Ahmedabad calls the shots 😉

[@shahrukhkotwal7125]

@Advait sure ..if that's what keeps you happy. A corporate controlling the government

[@neeljavia2965]

Same goes for a government who is destroying the very fabric of India.

[@hrushikeshahebbar2129]

I religiously watch cut the clutter daily.. you are such an amazing explainer. Good amount of opinion with facts and you make the person listening understand the topic clearly.

[@ThePrintIndia]

Do keep tuning in daily.

[@craumm]

Twitter faces little or no competition. It's as if there is only 1 newspaper in the nation and we are shutting it down. As a result it considers itself a free-speech essential.

[@rahulmalik1083]

Twitter has no competitor in social media space ?

[@craumm]

@@rahulmalik1083 instagram facebook KZbin That's it. OTOH ThePrint competes with 100s of news websites/papers/TV channels Media business has a lot of competition Social Media has barely 3 to 4 players.

[@rahulmalik1083]

@@craumm That looks like a full fledged oligopoly , nowhere close to a monopoly .

[@agudam]

"The battles you pick define your stature" - someone please tell this to the govt.

[@abhijitguha494]

Well said mate.

[@Sapiens-zv5xp]

Solid line bro Worthy to note down

[@punitarathi4127]

@@AI_mod No Capitalist wants to go to a Socialist Utopia

[@suryavenkatesan9998]

@@punitarathi4127 no capitalist would want Government control on companies either.

[@dejans6623]

No fight is too small to fight. Because once you let the "enemy" go, they come back stronger. Prithviraj Chauhan and Congress can vouch for that

[@ak_7973]

When Twitter and Facebook "fact check" then they automatically become a publisher

[@mrgyani]

If a Warez forum removes illegal content, do they become a publisher? If you can report videos on KZbin for spreading hate, propaganda etc - does KZbin become a publisher?

[@Suryapoosarla]

@@mrgyani illegal content has to be reported to be removed..fact checking is not that.. sexual content KZbin it removes on own but fact checking is not same as sexual content..

[@mrgyani]

@@Suryapoosarla is there a button on KZbin for reporting 'spam and misleading content' or not? Does determination of 'misleading content' use some form of discretion or not? Is it fact checking or not? My youtube account was permanently deleted and banned for my comments. I lost everything, all my Playlists, saved videos etc. My comments keep getting deleted for just having certain keywords.

[@prasmitkumarpradhan1497]

@@mrgyani then you are a toxic my frnd

[@kusshraathi]

CTC's absolute USP is Shekharji's sarcasm and wit!

[@deebeefr]

For the record you shouldn't trust oligarchs who have gained power in connection with America.

[@prathameshkale1468]

@Thomas Paine Revolution Demons?

[@deebeefr]

@Thomas Paine Revolution the us government over the years did pander to them , exempted them from taxes etc but i get your point man I'm not blaming the Americans I'm blaming the MNCs and the American govt( both Dems , demsoc and rep)

[@ishanbajpai6940]

@Thomas Paine Revolution America is the last place to be considered "Good"

[@baronharkonnen7894]

Don't talk like a mouthpiece of CCP

[@madhavdiwakar1100]

@@deebeefr Taxation is theft and must be highly justified. Tax is generated in every sale made by these platforms. In the case of Twitter its advertisements.

[@heeheeeeeeeee]

The problem is that Twitter does not follow its own rules. It uses the rules to ban or remove people it does not like(right wing) but the same rules do not apply to people it likes( left wing).

[@neeljavia2965]

Nice joke. They support anyone who pays them more.

[@jaijaiwantiparimu1427]

Ex President Trump regrets for not having banned Twitter when Nigeria did the same

[@StarSprangledBanner]

The US president cannot " ban" any American business.

[@inder121]

Ha ha ha ... big mistake by America... they should always follow Nigeria when it comes to key policy decision :) ..

[@saumyasrivastava6093]

Yesm Compare the USA to Nigeria, what's next Iran? China? xD

[@akhiljames3435]

Americans do not act against capitalists, it runs on their money

[@NARAYAN1964]

Perils of modern technology. Get hooked and in time, your life depends on it.

[@rohitramesh3502]

Not every one ..used Twitter for a month then deleted ita almost 8 years now , facebook also deleted 2 years back ..thats it am freee

[@djthecompwiz]

If your driver is driving.....I see what you did there SG😂

[@maheshs4527]

Metadata is not encrypted SG.. tracing of a message is part of Metadata.. only messages are encrypted..

[@japanijadu9092]

Regulation is far better than banning.

[@chaitraa4750]

I am not a fan of Twitter. Because it is a bully. But this doesn’t just affect Twitter. It’ll affect all of us. If we are careless and stupid enough to think this won’t comeback to bite us in the rear end, we will deserve what we get.

[@stephenstrange4239]

Yes we were careless and stupid to elect a party of uneducated religious fanatics..n now it bit us and we have this mess.all the deaths are a personal tragedy but as a country we reaped what we sowed

[@non_done]

No mr.shekar, it isn't about bjp vs Twitter. Twitter has an inherent bias towards ppl who don't share their ideology. Pls don't paint them as some neutral platform

[@shiveshtripathi4298]

Ironically Modi government was among the first to effectively use the social media for their benefit ...and now after getting outfoxed they are complaining... Nonetheless.. Big tech isn't above Elected Soveringn Govt(irrespective of Party in power) and they should be reined in.....

[@fromearth4546]

SG this was so good, that Twitter and others may watch this and call you to be theirs chief compliance officer, seriously you made much more sense on this topic then all news media just crying on either side.

[@TheAb9211]

“The battles you pick define your stature and who you are.” -SG. Love this line!

[@ranbirkalsi]

“ Bring out My Violin “🤣🤣🤣

[@aniljain8971]

SG’s self deprecating is very endearing. “Congress was slower with Twitter more than me!!”

[@arthurmorgan6594]

Fantastic! Takes the issue in a very non partisan fashion. Though I wish you had also spoken about Jack Dorsey not banning Khameini's Account after several accounts of anti-semitic slurs. He surely is heavily biased towards the left but then again he runs a private company! Such A Dilemma

[@jaivardhansingh9414]

It is a private company. It is free to ban anyone, it can even ban every right winger if it wants, however it cannot break laws. If someone is making false defamatory claims, trying to incite violence ,etc Twitter has to remove it.

[@Deathwish_99]

@@jaivardhansingh9414 The problem is they are not applying it evenly they are promoting one ideology over another they suppress one person and dont suppress another peraon for the same stuff.. that is the main problem here.

[@Deathwish_99]

@@jaivardhansingh9414 why didnt twitter permanentely delete the people who supported the riot on lal quila .. they were suspended for 4 hours and they all came back even after supporting and inciting violance ..

[@sushantchoudhary6393]

Bade bhaiya namaste! Hope you are doing well. Good to see you :)

[@BahubaliSamraat]

@@jaivardhansingh9414 if all the private companies in India decide to ban followers of a religious community, would you still say private companies can ban whoever they want? Stop supporting discrimination just because it aligns with your political views

[@mailtorajrao]

*@PRINT* It is a slippery slope when For-Profit platforms start censoring content basis their own judgement. Their allegiance is to their shareholders, not to any particular country's morals, ethics and Law (loophole it to heck usually).

[@vinayakkrishnaprasad358]

It's better if the best goI send CBI and ed to their offices because that's what is best for the country

[@mailtorajrao]

@@anonymouslyopinionated656 It is only reliable as the next quarter results, sometimes not even that

[@mailtorajrao]

@Zucchero Silicon valley leans to the money -- that silicon valley of pioneers is long gone. And many are anyway moving to Texas, right? What with California's taxes and requirements?

[@theobserver6041]

Everyone knew twitter is left leaning..what is he talking about ...twitter has always been against right ideology...just because they were first to create an account you say they love each other stupid logic

[@Prayukth]

Read about Noah Glass, the true brain behind Twitter who was thrown out unceremoniously...

[@RahulKumar-ng2gh]

They're acting like Republic of Google and Republic of Twitter

[@arpitpatra]

Wow. Twitter is like a soverign virtual governement

[@Abdul_the_next_door]

Decryption is the correct word. De-encrypt is not the right term in use.

[@AdityaSingh-mh3cb]

Criticise kar lo bas! :(

[@Abdul_the_next_door]

@@AdityaSingh-mh3cb it was just a correction and that too technical. I am not at all qualified to criticize Shekhar Gupta

[@suryansh13]

Big tech has become too powerful and needs regulation but that is not what the present dispensation is trying. Both are fighting to protect their own interest and we the users in between is completely ignored .

[@noobbatman9383]

Oh finally somebody makes a sensible comment!

[@stephenstrange4239]

Easy solution...dont use it

[@deebeefr]

@@stephenstrange4239 JuSt dOnT uSE iT , it's not as easy , for a lot of people their livelihood is dependent on social media

[@Tryingtobringchange]

'however....' 'somebody bring out my violin' 'People who crack UPSC must be using these lines' Hilarious. So much fun to listen to.

[@KorpalAjay]

Shekhar Uncle giving out life solid life advice in the starting of the video 💯

[@_suki_]

😅😅

[@sudhirnair]

Fabulous! True journalism! Gets you thinking instead of forcing an opinion on you! Thanks Shekhar!

[@kalpanamoghe5367]

Shekhar ji, it's not that simple as you portray. Last few months we are observing selection of twits, banning twitter accounts, taking action against perticular persons, maligning images etc. We honestly feel that government of India should take stern action against social media.. including everyone. Let them come under rule of land. Then discrimination will not be there. EU and other countries different conditions and others like India different conditions. Let twitter, whatsapp etc follow new law. It's good for everyone

[@kunalgupta900]

So at the end of the day few things here and there but rules were need of the hour. Social media platforms cannot be given free hand.

[@rajnarer]

And even govt. Period.

[@munishkmittal]

When Twitter can be so intelligent to determine which post to delete or classify manipulated media then an inspector can also be equally intelligent. Why you are not talking about twitter one side agenda

[@radhakrishnadasari6137]

That's what he mentioned in the last I believe

[@Suresh_Kamath]

That was exactly what he mentioned in the end. Probably you just listened to the first five minutes.

[@StarSprangledBanner]

It's a business. If you don't like it you are free to use another app.

[@munishkmittal]

@@StarSprangledBanner it's business but has to be as per the law of the land. If business does not follow law it's called illegal. For your information.

[@munishkmittal]

@@Suresh_Kamath actually I missed the last 2 mins. shekhar seemed to support platforms with bias during the entire show and in last 2 mins he mentioned otherwise. That's what smart editors do...

[@10jaideepg]

Only if we could have similar policies for govt. have chief compliance officer and grievance office for govt. if we don’t like what they are doing it, they have to fix in 36 hours or we put them in jail. India would be a much better place :-)

[@Abhinav-r8]

What if chief compliance officer comes out to be corrupt

[@RuinsOfTheUnknown]

@@Abhinav-r8 there would be a committee consisting of the pm, opposition leader and cji to handle such a situation

[@10jaideepg]

@@Abhinav-r8 what do you mean by 'waht if' :P

[@deebeefr]

I dont agree with the forced censorship part but twitter is equally at fault

[@livefreetodiehard2550]

Why exactly?

[@GagandeepSingh-dj8kd]

@@livefreetodiehard2550 Inconsistency in their policy.

[@deebeefr]

@@livefreetodiehard2550 I have been twitter for about 5 years on now , initially they were pretty consistent with their tos and freedom of speech rules and hate speech rules but now shit seems to be pretty biased , not exactly taking sides but sometimes they ban posts about people regarding a topic which may affect corpos ( like the initial china virus , cnn exposé ) and sometimes they shadow ban people for nothing , a girl name rashmi Samant who faced extreme religious intolerance and racism in Harvard was shadow banned for a month , they also don't ban open posts provoking religious and racial intolerance, and regarding that tool kit shit , I actually believe twitter should be answerable if they mark anything as "manipulated media" .

[@deebeefr]

@Advait exactly my bad

[@theimmortal1409]

Just wish , we had 2 episodes of Cut the Clutter per day !! Thank you SG sir 🙏

[@abhijitguha494]

SG needs some rest yo...

[@cillverbullet]

Guptaji seem to make twitter bjp's formar friend which is so far from the truth. How could a self proclaimed left leaning platform be friend of the bjp?

[@RockstarRSTR]

What’s wrong in being left leaning.🤨

[@deebeefr]

@@RockstarRSTR nothing wrong, bjp itself follows some socialist policies tbh there's no clear right and left in india, every party changes their views depending on the situation like chameleons

[@prashantgokhle7265]

Thank you for this free service. Best show for 360° analysis of current affairs, major issues.

[@imdb19]

Looks like some of the information that Print has put on social media does not have any proofs or may have been part of toolkit. The reasons provided by SG is not convincing.

[@hemantbhagwat4843]

Mr Gupta you are factually wrong. In Feb 21, it was government of India and not BJP government that had issued the orders. A lot of Indian intelligentsia is yet to accept that Modi is PM of India and not of BJP. So much for our liberal attitude and spirit of tolerance.

[@amitjnn]

I was about to write ‘very poorly researched CTC this time’ till I heard the last bit. Either Twitter is a neutral platform or it is ideologically inclined, and the rules will be different in both cases. Going on a rant on how ruling part used it or how opposition is using is all useless. Anyone can use it provided it is known what it is.. can Twitter decide on its own who is right or who is wrong.. an if it can then they have to be responsible editorially..

[@rajnarer]

Who will decide what's right and wrong thats the question

[@suryavenkatesan9998]

@@karthika560 say it with me...it's 👏their👏 company👏

[@amitjnn]

@@suryavenkatesan9998 say with me, they are operating 👏🏼in my country 👏🏼

[@amitjnn]

@@rajnarer indian courts and law enforcement machinery will.. unless we decide we don’t want any of those

[@shivamjha1403]

I was waiting for this specific topic from so long... glad u took it today in ur CTC SG! Thank you!!

[@user-il8nh1og1x]

One of the best analysis ... Marvellous....full of information,humour,logic,opinion,morality everything...thanku Shekhar sir..god bless you..

[@himanshujaiswal5016]

To deal with all the hate and abuses twitter and all these claimed intermediaries should empower their users not the govt.

[@jatinguchiya3209]

Why most of the hateful and violent comments come from a certain group of people?

[@utkarshupadhyay1485]

@@jatinguchiya3209 hahahaha as if Congress people are very sobre ......... SG himself accepted that other side IT cell members are more abusive ....... Start living in reality kid 😅😅

[@ashitoshpatil867]

@@utkarshupadhyay1485 congress is the biggest employer for vellas be it rallies or social media, and they are more abusive and annoying because they are paid.

[@kd6788]

@@ashitoshpatil867 scamgress is becoming extinct for these reasons

[@sankalp6872]

This is a Good law in Spirit. Cyberbullying should be dealt with but yes the line between responsible speech and free speech is blurred.

[@subramrami1274]

Very rightly said. ''You can't have both ways''. When Twitter have some rules which is atleast partially overlapping what any government would want it is very overly confidant simply because you have millions of members and popular.

[@sudhirbhalerao8811]

This is one of the best videos on Cut the clutter by SG in the last 3 months.. It explains the issue in an excellent way and in a balanced manner.. Kudos to you SG 💐💐💐

[@Vijaysingh-ws1vk]

Shekhar love for congress and hate for bjp will never end

[@jeyaananthana8577]

Editor of worthy print background only can bring out such an wonderful insights of social media sites

[@iJigarThakkar]

Again loyal dog SG is not sharing all the information, The real f***ng issue is as Russian PMPutin pointed out Twitter and FB are working like a Sovereign nation (which there aren't) and The real culprit JaCK Dorsey (the real a***hole) is being jerk... he is radical left and pushing his personal agenda on the platform... It needs 'Divya drasti' like Sekhar Gupta has to not to look at that...

[@muralidharchalapathy7855]

When government came up with rules, many worked on complying, few who had some problems wrote back to govt their apprehensions, took the issue to Courts. Fine. What did twitter do? What was their attitude even after the last day to comply was over? it is this attitude of twitter that had to be tamed.

[@rajshekhar1147]

Whatever it may be logic of twitter, being a commercial organisation it should listen to whichever Govt is in power frames rules and if it does not like go to court. But it should not empower itself to decide what is right or what is wrong.

[@neeljavia2965]

The car driver and owner case seems quite familiar.

[@nehilbhatnagar3989]

You seem a man of culture/law of torts

[@neeljavia2965]

@@nehilbhatnagar3989 You are joking?

[@alannair44]

Par bhai charity bhi to karte hai

[@neeljavia2965]

@@alannair44 Aur nahi toh kya

[@keertisurana90]

@@nehilbhatnagar3989 Do I spot a fellow law student? 😂😂😂

[@ManishGupta-rf4gx]

Loved the humour (Bring out my 🎻) I've been seeing you w/o lush hair for practically all my life. Please don't grace business of hair transplant centers. I want to identify with someone when I lose my already diminishing hairline.

[@jhumlababa8260]

Highly intelligent alien species are "bhakts" of this hairstyle.

[@ManishGupta-rf4gx]

@@jhumlababa8260 Haha, perhaps in a couple of years I'll be a 'bhakt' of anyone flaunting his hairstyle. Including Shah, Yogi, Gowda, Dwayne Johnson to name a few.

[@malgudiiras96]

The arrogance and self-righteousness of Twitter are so obvious yet your show just devotes 2 minutes to it. I agree that many of the Government rules need to be either changed or removed but just see the potential damage Twitter can do to free speech. It suspends accounts at will, fails to disclose reasons for days together, and then doesn't decide on appeals as well.

[@chandankumar1987]

Nice Shekharjii you simply concluded so nicely in last 5 min. i was waiting from the start with the same doubt :)..

[@SBH3356]

Twitter should remain as social media and should not try to interfere in a foreign country's political matters. I appreciate Nigeria's move to suspend twitter. Now Koo has made entry in Nigeria as well.

[@shivangaggarwal8684]

Shekhar Uncle you should also do en episode on your favorite reading material ( books, journals , etc ) covering foreign policy , economy and political history .

[@sourabhmookherjee4218]

So all the tweets claiming 56 inches... is that patently false too?

[@politicalsoil5698]

Why is it titled " modi govt " Shouldn't it be " indian govt "

[@amanshukla8758]

After this, I guess our press freedom ranking is going to drop down even further.

[@pranavkakkar7637]

Not only press Freedom but the Freedom index ranking will be even lower than Partially free.

[@amanshukla8758]

@@pranavkakkar7637 No, actually we are a long way from dropping below the partially free category, I mean we just became partially free this year. I know the state of our democracy is not good, but please don't exaggerate it to cause panic. Fear is a good thing, but panic is not. We can still recover if opposition parties become more active in holding this government accountable, which they aren't doing as of yet.

[@pranavkakkar7637]

@@amanshukla8758 The way things are looking right now, it won't be long before it happens. And democracies die in silence, freedoms are taken away bit by bit and piece by piece. It's not a spontaneous process. Takes deliberate effort to deprive someone of thier freedom.

[@amanshukla8758]

@@pranavkakkar7637 Indian democracy is resilient due its diversity and sheer size, both in terms of area and population. It survived the Emergency. It will also survive the present onslaught.

[@prabhuwhr2872]

Twitter should follow Indian Government laws

[@shubhshukla]

Its an one sided , unreciprocated love which eventually hurts, it aint lovers tiff. 😁

[@denzilmissier7390]

I changed my KZbin name to joker to just get away from the tag " Christian missionaries" . When I say a fact instead of countering the fact they were talking about my personal beliefs and abusing . Now my name is joker and I speak my heart out without being abused 😂. Now they call me congress SPOC 😂 everyone who tell something against govt is congress 😀

[@rahulharidasz]

It actually goes both ways actually. Some people these days can't think or look beyond without categorising under some kind of identity.

[@suryavenkatesan9998]

That's the reality we live in dude. Jihadis rice bags and what not...and these crooks are complaining of censorship. Twitter is not letting them be a bigot and racist that's why all this hue and cry

[@P.B...]

This has all the makings of gradually building up a bureaucracy for a Department or Ministry of Speech, and Morality!

[@agudam]

We'll become an orwellian state

[@P.B...]

No future government would remove these rules. They can always use them to silence any opposition.

[@SanjayKumar-mo2lg]

This is the way BJP is assessing opponent's complete wisdom and strength so that they spend less time in proper action on negative elements. They just don't want to go along with the time u all use for spreading negativity. When u all r exausted with this doing, may find u all a way to positive India. This is the way BJP finds for vibrant India, which many don't understand.

[@amanshukla8758]

Great episode as always! 😎👍🏻

[@balakrishnanselva1361]

In 2010 Blackberry also refused to share the details of BBM chat to DR.Manmohan Singh government. At last they complied. It is not about which government, its about national interest.

[@rnugra3292]

Yes agreed it is a lovers' tiff !! All was lovie dovy till the tweets were abusing Modi's opponents. Remember Modi was following the tweeter whose tweet called your fellow journalist Gauri Lankesh a "kutiya" after his political favourites shot her dead !!! No one in the central government thought that any thing was wrong with the state of affairs of the social media then !!! Now the same government and the same Law Minister are saying that this media has to be tightly regulated ( read controlled ) after a cartoon is allowed to be tweeted which showed Modi in a poor light !!! Strange philosophy : BJP is right if it does some thing to which it strongly objjected when it was done by the Congress. But no body is allowed to copy the wrong the BJP has committed some time back !! It appears that the oppositions have their own IT Cells now and it has disturbed the ruling dispensation !!!

[@CommanderShepard05]

Great job as usual !! Thanks for this Informational video

[@vrishabhsharma6530]

Twitter removing trump in enshrined in section 230(c) of the Comm. Decency Act which grants immunity from liability if it chooses to remove/restrict content/users, based on what Twitter thinks is obscene/threatening etc. Issues arise in the alleged opaque+selective way it does the same.

[@RahulKumar-ng2gh]

But They haven't removed Malaysian PM and Iran's primer for the hate speech, why it's selective morality or is it because he was not belong to their ideology

[@vrishabhsharma6530]

To add to this, as it stands today in India under Sec. 79 of IT Act the "intermediary" is not liable only if it does not modify the information contained in transmission, unless such action conforms to government guidelines. Quite different to the US

[@RahulKumar-ng2gh]

@@vrishabhsharma6530 yes, completely agree, take for example if somebody threaten me on phone, I will not sue vodafone or jio, they are just neutral intermediary, but Twitter and other silicon vallies MNCs tried to take side and it will lead to death of big tech

[@vrishabhsharma6530]

@@RahulKumar-ng2gh your guess is as good as mine brother, no one knows

[@rgpragasam3779]

Mr.Shekar Gupta, Please see this link. I found it to be very sensible and hard hitting where needed. When energies come together, the impact can be powerful.

[@harshithgowda202]

This is what happens when Corporations Grow Huge The Growth Of Corporations Should Be Limited before Growing Itself

[@shubhamz2464]

Or just watch joe rogan podcast where jack and other guys debate . It’s easy to discover that Twitter is biased

[@akshayjannu678]

@Bhadwa Modi again GODI media doesn't have article 79s protection

[@spyboy0076]

@@akshayjannu678 well they are immune to jail. Look at goswami

[@akshayjannu678]

@@spyboy0076 You mean just like NDTV and other channels against whom too a fascist government put cases?

[@akshayjannu678]

@Bhadwa Modi what's your point? Republic claims to be author of their sources, twitter don't

[@aryan1991sharma]

The best criticism is point of view for both sides. That criticism was not there that's why you had to waste last two days to defend it. Learn from it, if you want to be the leader of the digital age media. Let people decide what they want don't force it on them.

[@sreedharnarmeta1928]

You are not Takla SG. You are our loving Chacha Choudhry

[@shantanugautam3127]

It's like learning from your strongest enemy, in our case it's China right now.

[@shantanugautam3127]

@@MrSpermstar Sure they are, but not in this particular area.

[@deebeefr]

@@MrSpermstar funny how the communists in our country take xi and ccp as the hallmark of communism , even though the only communist part about them is their authoritarian governance and censorship and media control everything else is hardcore capitalist.

[@shantanugautam3127]

@@MrSpermstar Internet sure is a weird place😂

[@slashybluesy]

@@MrSpermstar Iss even odd policy to daily apply karo.

[@ManishKumar-pl3dq]

Only issue is why people were not disputing this before 2014, why now???

[@margaretthatcher3150]

Twitter should either not. censor anyone or abstain from political activism.

[@ThiruSiva]

I do agree that freedom of speech is not absolute...

[@VijayashankarNa]

Twitter has the option to be a pure intermediary by keeping its hands off the editorial discretion.

[@gauravtyagiexperience76]

Government is demanding a simple thing, either behave like an intermediary or like a publisher, you cant be both, if a government officer cant decide what is right and what is wrong then same thing should be applicable on Twitter.

[@hairstuff371]

Absurd order should be taken down

[@abhradeepdas3835]

This is what impartial journalism is.

[@hrushikeshahebbar2129]

Thank you the print especially Shekar Gupta for cut the clutter , watch it daily without a missing even a day

[@dheerajsharma2129]

India- Right vs Left Israel- Right vs Ultra Right.

[@gajabalaji]

What matters more than the law is reputation. If twitter and few other social media platform chooses to be non-complaint and leave India it will affect the reputation of India.

[@theyazzledazzle]

Just paid for the monthly subscription, as a non-Indian American. Thank you for all your hard work and fantastic journalism.

[@ThePrintIndia]

Hi Needa, thank you for subscribing to ThePrint! Do keep writing in and do participate by sending us your opinion on issues pertinent to you on [e-mail]

[@adityadeb1819]

22:54 is epic. SG we can never get tired of your innocent anecdotes. Its the garnish on the decluttered main course

[@09ak09ak98]

so well explained..kudos Shekhar

[@ud1976]

The contradiction is well explained. This is less of an issue in the US as free speech laws are far more liberal.

[@Abhinav-r8]

No, the benefit in US is similar to what benefit they get under sec 79 , but difference is, if something goes wrong, US courts can call jack dorsey ,here you've noone to call

[@MonishMhatre]

This is also an issue in US but the scope of coverage is different. US has defamation and libel laws. If a person is able to hold Twitter (a big corporation) responsible for defamation than the person posting defamation (the person who might not be rich) then the scope of damage claims can change. You can't sue and expect to get millions of dollars from a homeless but you sure can get that from Twitter.

[@ud1976]

@@Abhinav-r8 no. No court would. Maybe Congress would.

[@kenedylukram4925]

Under the new IT act and regulations passed in feb. 2021 the govt. is asking all the media platforms to set up a Grievnaces redressal and Compliance mechanism e.i by appointing a Resident grievance Officer, Chief Compliance Officer and a Nodal Contact person. The MeiTY also asked instant messaging apps to make provisions for tracking first originator of a message. Failure to comply would take away the safe harbor or indemnity provided under section 79 of IT act. Unlike USA's section 230 of the 1996 communication Decency act which gave internet intermediaries freedom from any subjugation and intimidation from the establishment, the present law in India will be detrimental to freedom of expression and individual liberty plus one's democratic right to criticize against the incumbent freely.

[@sarveshpaikane9963]

#SBI #RBI #PMO #Media #India #ShameOnBank #LCAIKiawaaz Also I request and pray; SFIO, CAG(India), President of India,World Human Rights,and all to enquire on almost all lonee's suicidal cases of farmers and common mans taken place due to loan repayment, whether the suicides attempts were really because of lonee's failed to repay EMI or due to illegal higher interest charged and illegally overcharging,Mal practice,Mental harassments,illegal manupulations to the account by branch managers and Banks as done in my case, Then it is a murder, I pray to be strictly and seriously investigated and to set an enquiry on the same. Awaiting for early reply and early action and Fair Justice, Infact schemes like bank staff loans which are charged on simple interest rate basis are being misused by illegally reinvesting and Refinancing as earlier offered to me by AGM Madhav Desai. Government should take strict action, cancel and give such schemes only to farmers rather than giving it to bank staffs which are already earning five star salaries and luxuries. Even in case of recent SBI Corporate frauds not even a singe bank officials were being punished, Infact promoted and benifited which prooves clear case of corruptions by the bank officials too with the support of the government….JAI HIND