Mastodawn

Steph May 2, 2023

Globally restricting speech based on local legal demands (in this case, from India) is exactly as terrifying as @mmasnick makes it sound in this post. https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/11/free-speech-twitter-is-now-globally-blocking-posts-critical-of-the-modi-government/

This was EXCEEDINGLY rare in the Twitter 1.0 days — I can think of a vanishingly small number of examples, all of which involved extensive litigation and pushback to avoid having to comply.

A dark day for free speech indeed.

‘Free Speech’ Twitter Is Now Globally Blocking Posts Critical Of The Modi Government

A few weeks ago we wrote about how Elon Musk’s Twitter was now blocking tweets in India at the request of the government. As we noted, there’s a lot of important history here. India had demanded su…

Techdirt

SpaceLifeForm Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick

Fascism is a global op, not local.

They want to rule the world.

Que Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick I wonder how much Modi paid for that privilege

Tor Iver Wilhelmsen Apr 12, 2023

@BabblingGeek @yoyoel @mmasnick he probably just hinted at what might happen to Tesla sales in India if it wasn’t blocked. Old Twitter was not owned by someone with other international businesses.

Dan Apr 12, 2023

@BabblingGeek @yoyoel @mmasnick doubt Modi paid a penny. All he had to do was threaten to ban Tesla sales in the country.
Do that and Musk will immediately roll over and do whatever the dictator demands.

Clay Haynes Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick Didn't the India office get raided because of the pushback?

EDIT: Probably should've added a link - https://www.theverge.com/2021/5/24/22451271/police-india-raid-twitter-tweets-government-manipulated-media

Police in India raid Twitter offices in probe of tweets with ‘manipulated media’ label

Police in India raided the offices of Twitter India in Delhi and Gurgaon on Monday, seeking “information Twitter has about the toolkit and why they chose to give the ‘manipulated media’ label,” local news outlets reported.

The Verge

Aswath Rao Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick What is the definition of "EXCEEDINGLY rare"? I can remember many occurrences over the years. I just need to google it to list them.

Yoel Roth Apr 11, 2023

@aswath @mmasnick Twitter regularly withheld content in specific countries based on requests from those countries (all disclosed in the Transparency Report). Global withholding was a seldom-used tool, in my experience, and I can only think of a handful of cases. But I’d be interested in any examples your googling turns up; my memory isn’t perfect!

Aswath Rao Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick My bad. The operative word is "global banning". I missed that and focused on banning within India.

§ Jason 🥄Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick

Could this happen on Mastodon?

My initial thought is no, since there is no central control.

https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/11/free-speech-twitter-is-now-globally-blocking-posts-critical-of-the-modi-government/

‘Free Speech’ Twitter Is Now Globally Blocking Posts Critical Of The Modi Government

A few weeks ago we wrote about how Elon Musk’s Twitter was now blocking tweets in India at the request of the government. As we noted, there’s a lot of important history here. India had demanded su…

Techdirt

Parttimesailor Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick then the Saudis are also paying to block stuff

mcc Apr 11, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick I seem to remember that one of the first articles about Twitter's post-Musk mass layoffs mentioned Twitter had had a multi-person policy/legal team in India that was largely responsible for fielding and pushing back on such requests from the Modi government, and that entire team had been laid off. I remember thinking about what would result from that…

(Can't find the article I'm thinking of; apparently they laid off 90% of India staff & shuttered the office tho)

HRH ginsterbusch Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick Well .. this is NOT Twitter :)

Jose Perez Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick He's doing much worse job now than Jack's leadership and just following Fox's and conservative views and not all sides like he promised and said. Users are starting to feel betrayed by Elon

ProtectiveHen Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick Twitter is now merely a tool of dictator censorship.

Emmy Steven Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick is there anything we can do about it?

Attila Kinali Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick It wasn't rare. The US has a several decades long history of applying its own laws to everyone on the internet. Because obviously, everyone who is on the internet uses US tech so they have to abide to US laws and morality standards. It just wasn't visible to you because you live in the US

enmodo ⚛️ 🧬 🇺🇦 🍉Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick can you imagine what he is doing for the Saudi government without telling anyone? I sure hope no enemy of the Saudi government was foolish enough to ever think private Tweets or DMs were secure...

@yoyoel @mmasnick "free"

Joe Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick yet another reason I'm on deacon.social and mastodon.social

Philomorph Apr 12, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick Musk realizes that Twitter is basically dead in the West and Europe, and sees his only money-making opportunities elsewhere, so of course he'll cave to the ones who control his access to those markets.

ChuffMeister Apr 13, 2023

@yoyoel @mmasnick the Birdshite is now openly blatant with its rascist bigoted agenda.

Aditi Agrawal Apr 13, 2023

@yoyoel Hi Yoel, do you remember in which cases Twitter allowed global blocking and why? I am unable to find such instances online (except for the 2017 bug when country-specific tweet withholding was introduced?)