How social media companies help authoritarian governments censor the internet Increasingly, the price of access to a global digital market is assisting the policing of online speech. The president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, was so outraged when Twitter deleted his post last Wednesday (2 June) that he ordered the country s mobile networks to block access to the social network and broadcasters to delete their accounts. While Buhari s comment – in which he appeared to threaten to return Nigeria to the appalling violence of its 1967 civil war – certainly looks like a violation of Twitter s policies, it s an unusual political intervention by the company (when Donald Trump threatened people protesting the murder of George Floyd with “shooting”, the post was merely flagged). More common are the requests governments make for the removal of posts that criticise them – and social media companies are often willing to comply.
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But won’t reveal who it wants banned from social media over less obvious disinformation Share
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As COVID-19 continues to ravage India, the nation’s government has told it populace that 5G signals have nothing to do with the spread of the virus – if only because no 5G networks operate in India.
A statement from the nation’s Department of Telecommunications states “several misleading messages are being circulated on various social media platforms claiming that the second wave of coronavirus has been caused by the testing of the 5G mobile towers.”
After pointing out that the very notion is a nonsense, the department points out that India approved 5G trials on May 4th and they won’t start for months.
Many banned posts were made by opposition politicians and appear to be criticism of the government
Laura Dobberstein Mon 26 Apr 2021 // 05:34 UTC Share
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As India battles a surging second wave of COVID-19 cases and severe shortages of medical supplies to fight it, the nation s government has told Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove social media posts it says may panic its populace with misinformation.
The takedown requests were lodged on Friday, a day before India for the first time recorded over 300,000 new COVID-19 cases. India s previous peak came in September 2020, when cases reached nearly 100,000 cases a day before settling to around 10,000 a day in early 2021.
India s New Internet Rules Are a Step Toward Digital Authoritarianism, Activists Say Here s What They Will Mean yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.