As Outbreak Rages, India Orders Critical Social Media

Posts to Be Taken Down

nytimes.com/2021/04/25/business/india-covid19-twitter-facebook.html

April 25, 2021

NEW DELHI — 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.

The companies complied with the requests for now, in part by making the posts invisible
to those using the sites inside India. In the past, the companies have reposted some
content after determining that it didn’t break the law.

The takedown orders come as India’s public health crisis spirals into a political one, and
set the stage for a widening struggle between American social media platforms and Mr.
Modi’s government over who decides what can be said online.

On Monday, the country reported more than 350,000 new infections and more than 2,800
deaths, marking the fifth consecutive day it set a world record in daily infection statistics,
though experts warn that the true numbers are probably much higher. The country now
accounts for almost half of all new cases globally. Its health system appears to be
teetering. Hospitals across the country have scrambled to get enough oxygen for
patients.

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In New Delhi, the capital, hospitals this weekend turned away patients after running out of
oxygen and beds. Last week, at least 22 patients were killed in a hospital in the city of
Nashik, after a leak cut off their oxygen supplies.

Online photos of bodies on plywood hospital beds and the countless fires of overworked
crematories have gone viral. Desperate patients and their families have pleaded online
for help from the government, horrifying an international audience.

On Sunday evening, in one of many pleas for help on social media, Ajay Koli took to
Twitter to find an oxygen cylinder in Delhi for his mother, who, he said, had tested positive
10 days ago. Mr. Koli said he lost his father on Saturday. “I don’t want to lose my mom
now.”

Mr. Modi has been under attack for ignoring the advice of experts about the risks of
loosening restrictions, after he held large political rallies with little regard for social
distancing. Some of the content now offline in India highlighted that contradiction, using
lurid images to contrast Mr. Modi’s rallies with the flames of funeral pyres.

Image

People carrying oxygen cylinders after refilling them in a factory in Ahmedabad, India, this
weekend.Credit...Amit Dave/Reuters

In a radio address on Sunday, Mr. Modi sought to stem the fallout. He said that the
“storm” of infections had left the country “shaken.”

“At this time, in order to win this battle, we have to give priority to experts and scientific
advice,” he said.

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In an emailed statement, Twitter said that if content “is determined to be illegal in a
particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of Twitter’s rules, we may withhold access to the
content in India only,” adding that in that case it would notify users. Facebook, which
owns Instagram, did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

One of the tweets removed from view was posted by Moloy Ghatak, a labor minister in
the opposition-ruled West Bengal state, where Mr. Modi’s party hopes to make big gains
in an ongoing election. Mr. Ghatak accused Mr. Modi of “mismanagement” and held him
directly responsible for the deaths. His tweet included images of Mr. Modi and his election
rallies beside those of the cremations and compared him to Nero, the Roman emperor,
for choosing to hold political gatherings and exporting vaccines during a “health crisis.”

Another tweet from Revanth Reddy, a sitting member of the parliament, used a hashtag
that blamed Mr. Modi for the “disaster.” “India recording over 2 lakh cases everyday,” it
said, using an Indian numbering unit that means 200,000 cases. “Shortage of vaccines,
shortage of medicines, increasing number of deaths.”

The new steps to muzzle online speech deepen a conflict between American social
media platforms and Mr. Modi’s government. The two sides have tussled in recent months
over a push by India’s government to more strictly police what is said online, a policy that
critics say is being used to silence government detractors.

“This has been a trend, which is enforced with increasing frequency and severity for
online media spaces,” said Apar Gupta, the executive director of the Internet Freedom
Foundation, a digital rights group. He added that the orders were being used to “cause
censorship” under the guise of making social media companies more “accountable.”

What to Know: Shortages of oxygen and hospital beds, along with low
vaccination rates, have added to the surge in illness and deaths in India.
Case Counts:Experts say the true death count far exceeds official figures.
This chart illustrates how known Covid cases have grown over the last few
months across the country.
Travel Bans: The U.S. has begun to restrict travel from India, and Australia
has banned all incoming travel from the country, including among its own
citizens.
How to Help: Donors around the world are giving money for meals, medical
expenses, P.P.E. and oxygen tanks, among other essential supplies.

The fight to control the gruesome images and online fury over a raging public health
catastrophe is just one front in a broader conflict playing out globally. Governments
across the world have been seeking to rein in the power of the largest tech companies,
like Twitter and Facebook, whose policies have huge political impact far from their
California headquarters. In the best of cases, it can be difficult to disentangle government
efforts to tamp down misinformation from other motivations, like tilting online debate in
one political party’s favor.

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While the companies seek to hew to policies that they say are based on the principles of
free speech, their responses to government power plays have been inconsistent and
often based on business pragmatism. In Myanmar, Facebook cut business ties with
military-linked accounts over violence against protesters. In China, Facebook does brisk
business with state-backed media groups that have been busy denying the widespread
internment of ethnic minorities, which the United States has labeled a genocide.

Image
Police patrol a deserted market area during the lockdown imposed by the state government in
Amritsar, India, on Saturday.Credit...Narinder Nanu/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

In India, the companies face a stark choice: follow laws and risk suppressing political
debate, or ignore them and face harsh punishments, including prison time for local
employees, in a potentially huge growth market.

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. It has arrested activists and journalists, and pressured media
organizations to hew to its line. It has cut off mobile internet access in troubled areas.
After a standoff with China, it blocked a number of apps owned by Chinese companies.

In February, Twitter relented in the face of government threats to arrest its employees,
and blocked 500 accounts after the government accused them of making inflammatory
remarks about Mr. Modi. Twitter declined, however, to remove a number of journalists’
and politicians’ accounts, pointing out that the orders to block them did not appear to be
consistent with Indian law.

In a Sunday statement, India’s government said the posts it targeted “spread fake or
misleading information” and created “panic about the Covid-19 situation in India by using
unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals.” It pointed to photos in several
posts that it said were of bodies unrelated to the recent outbreak.

The removals did little to mute a broader chorus of online anger.

“If most citizens are using every single means they have to organize hospital beds,
oxygen & logistic support for near & dear what exactly is the Government of India doing?”
wrote Mahua Moitra, a politician and member of parliament from West Bengal.

Aftab Alam, a professor at the University of Delhi was more direct.

“Because you know it’s easier to take down tweets than it is to ensure oxygen supplies,”
he wrote on Twitter.

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