Social media is in constant buss around the country with a message that Twitter is very likely will be banned within a short time in India. Twitter currently is walking on the thin ice in our country. Many have to even say that Twitter has been already served notice by our Government. And if it does not abide follow the regulations posed by the Government of India, the service will be soon banned.
Even during the recent meeting, top Indian officials held a video conferencing meeting with a global Twitter executive saying that the social media giant’s giant is welcome to do business in India. But the fact remains the same for each one of them is that they need to follow the law of our country, and the same applies to Twitter also irrespective that Twitter having its own rules and guidelines.
The social network is on the pier for supposedly not following the government directives to take action against several accounts in India. Like other big tech giants Amazon, Apple, Facebook, etc. there is a lot at stake for Twitter in our country. It is currently fighting for survival. Whether it can bring itself out of its India dilemma is anybody’s guess.
Is Twitter really trending on uncertainties?
To be precise with this argument, we can say that it is in a better position now than what it was before. The main reason behind this is that of change of Government in the US, Twitter is benefited at this time. As Donald Trump lost his US Presidential race, Twitter managed to disentangle itself from a tricky spot and saved face by banning Trump’s account and taking severe action against many accounts that violated its policies on hate speech.
But in India, the Silicon Valley free speech is not very sure that it can show off but are perhaps aware that there may never be another home like this. Indians are a lot argumentative and Twitter itself in many ways an embodiment of that nowadays. The social media giants want their big share of India.
The current situation in India makes Twitter in a more crucial stage. As the peaceful agitation was not that peaceful full which jolted the violence on 26th January. The government did ask Twitter to remove that has been used an inflammable hashtag. These were these links related to farmers' protests against the agricultural farm bill. Since there has been international attention and then came the tweets of Rihanna, Greta, and Meena Harris, niece of Kamala Harris about the secret arrest and death of farmers and injury to several policemen, covering news of barriers around Delhi, the country’s capital.
What the government released has officially statement calling these tweets propaganda. After which there were many messages on Twitter supporting the government. The way the government pushed-back was surprising as celebrities from all over the world tweeted that how India handled its ‘internal matter ‘.big shots like Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli also tweeted in support of the government.
As the center’s patience on Twitter non-compliance order wears out, the microblogging site might go to the courts in defense for the “right of free expression”. UN IT secretary Mr. Sawhney also made it clear that lawfully orders are binding on any type of business entity, “it must be obeyed immediately”. The IT secretary expressed his deep regrets to twitter leadership about how Twitter delayed with substantial parts of the order. As in India its constitution and law come first.
What if Twitter quits India?
If Indeed Twitter has to-do an about-turn it is most likely to affect its reputation in the western world. Perhaps, the most concerning part is that the Indian internet is so insensitive to bans that twitter may not actually remain on focus for too long. While a Twitter exit from our country may seem improbable a few weeks ago but its certainty is well within the area of possibility now.
Microblogging platform Koo is also interested to fill the gap with its focus on regional languages. For some time it may take little time to expanded its presence and spread awareness about the app. So it’s quite likely that Koo will be India’s answer to Twitter.