SANJAY KANOJIA/AFP via Getty Images
27 Apr 2021
India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) said on Sunday it asked Facebook, Twitter, and other platforms to remove posts that create “panic” about the coronavirus surge in India by spreading “fake or misleading information.”
Opposition politicians and international free speech advocates denounced the action as political censorship by the embattled government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Twitter confirmed to CNN on Monday it received the request from MEITY, which was evidently made on April 23, and complied by deleting at least some of the specified tweets. Facebook has yet to comment on the matter.
UK to send India life-saving mobile oxygen factories that supply scores at time
From CNN’s Amy Cassidy and Sarah Dean
Britain s Health Secretary Matt Hancock speaks during a virtual press conference inside the new Downing Street Briefing Room in London on April 28. Kirsty Wigglesworth/Pool/AFP/Getty Images
The UK will send three mobile oxygen factories that produce enough oxygen per minute to support 50 people at a time, as it battles a devastating second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, the British government announced on Wednesday.
In a statement, the Foreign Office said the three oxygen generation units – each the size of a shipping container would be sent from surplus stock from Northern Ireland and would produce 500 liters of oxygen per minute each, which is enough for 50 people to use at a time.
Hindustan Times / Getty Images
Prime Minister Narendra Modi raises his arms in the air during a public rally for West Bengal Assembly Election at Barasat on April 12, 2021.
Facebook temporarily hid posts calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the platform s latest foray in a series of controversial decisions affecting free speech in a country experiencing a full-blown COVID-19 crisis.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest social network said that posts with the hashtag or text #ResignModi “are temporarily hidden here” because “some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.” Because the posts were hidden, it’s unclear what content violated the rules of a company whose executives have often expressed a commitment to open expression.
Indian government asks social media giants to censor posts around COVID-19 marketing-interactive.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from marketing-interactive.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Twitter has removed several tweets about COVID-19 at the request of the Indian government, including some that were critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi s handling of a brutal second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement yesterday, India s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said it had asked Twitter, Facebook and others to remove around 100 posts in view of the misuse of social media platforms by certain users to spread fake or misleading information.
It accused those users of creating panic about the latest COVID-19 wave by using unrelated, old and out of the context images or visuals, communally sensitive posts and misinformation about COVID-19 protocols.