A recent hashtag in the heat of the farmer’s agitation named #ModiPlansGenocide had the government alarmed. The government demanded that Twitter remove that hashtag and not without reason. Some extreme hashtags can lead to irreversible repercussions.
A battle submerged between Twitter and the government when Twitter did not immediately remove the hashtag, and later restored many of the suspended accounts.
On Saturday, 30th January 2021, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) blocked around 250 Tweets/Twitter accounts that were using the hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide.
In February 2021, MeitY, NITI Aayog, Union Minister Piyush Goyal, among others joined Koo and tweeted about it.
What is Koo? Koo was launched 10 months ago as a microblogging alternative to Twitter focusing on Indian regional languages. They claim over 2 million users since launch with 1 million active users every month. Koo has been criticized for parroting the same features as Twitter. The Prime Minister mentioned Koo in his Mann Ki Baat. Yesterday, February 10, Koo raised 4.1 million dollars as part of its series funding. In an article from India Today, it is shared that the Koo app has been found to be leaking sensitive user data including date of birth and email address among other information.
Co-founder and CEO of Koo Aprameya Radhakrishna said in an interview with NDTV that the aim was to “go deep into India” with an outreach to people uncomfortable with an English platform. He said he has developed more regional characters, so Indians can express themselves in local languages, created language communities, have the ability to make video clippings and share, and this platform prevented users from being banned. He does state that he ultimately plans for Koo to become an international global platform.
During the interview with NDTV Radhakrishna said, “We are all for freedom of speech… everybody is free to express themselves as they want. There will be things that are sensitive such as self-harm, a threat to lives, and any platform will have to abide by the law of the land. We are a company registered in India; it will be governed by India…”
Some of the comments on Twitter on the ban reflecting the divisions.
I want to congratulate PM @narendramodi for inspiring a clean up of Twitter. I hear that all his followers are moving to #kooapp. I encourage all those who love Modi ji to move to Koo. It is the mother of all win-wins.
— Salman Anees Soz (@SalmanSoz) February 11, 2021
There is a sense of misgiving and confusion over the chaos of having people chose Koo, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media platforms
What an exhausting time for journalists. Have to download a new app every day because you never know where news will break. Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn or Koo or Clubhouse or Twitter Spaces or Instagram… and the list goes on
— Chandra R. Srikanth (@chandrarsrikant) February 11, 2021
When MEITY blocked around 250 Twitter accounts, this was perhaps inspired by banning Former President of the United States Donald Trump from Twitter. However, there was a big difference in the procedure. In the United States, Twitter took initiative to block the account of Donald J. Trump exercising its right under U.S. laws that give social platforms the freedom to police speech on their platforms but in India, Twitter has to block accounts on the government’s demand.
The government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has become very assertive in drowning differences of opinion. It has arrested activists, journalists, comedians, and media organizations, news agency owners and ED raids inflicted. The government has also cut off mobile internet access in troubled zones.
It has to be acknowledged that trollers can be of right, left, neutral, medium sides, but it is very interesting to note that many of the very malicious, cruel Tweeters were followed Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and many pro-BJP followers did not have identifiable profiles with fake names and dubious credentials.
While the government is taking measures for the hashtag #ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide, many controversial hashtags have been ignored over the years.
During the Pulwama terror attack, Twitter exploded with hateful tweets targeted at Kashmiris and Muslims in India. The tweets called for violence against Muslims and the boycott of Muslims. Many prominent Twitter handles participated in this iniquitous act, and notably, some of these people are followed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Hashtags such as #मुस्लिमोकासंपूर्ण_बहिष्कार (‘Total Boycott of Muslims) trended heavily. Messages posted with these hashtags demanded people to boycott buying goods from Muslims and demanded a ban on their religion. #BoycottAllah’was also trending. No one from the government took note of this, no action was taken and the hashtag remained.
The Twitter handle “No Conversion” incites hatred to Christians to the point that whenever its followers see any Christian online they abuse them filthily. Under this handle, people commenting under No Conversion posts have written, “Eradicate Christians out of India and “ethnic cleansing”. Someone even wrote, “Gole maro sale ko.” Christians are taken to prison for false claims of conversion.
Some have even been brutally killed recently, such as Jayaraj, Bennix,14-year-old Sombura Madkami among others. Reports are coming in that the crimes against Christians increased by 60% from 2016 to 2019. From 2017 onward to December 2019 Persecution Relief, a Christian organization that was birthed in 2015 has received more than 3000 desperate calls for help. There is a nucleus of hate from powerful people on Twitter influencing and organizing events enabling violence in villages. If one studies such handles, they will see them initiating movements patterned with intent to harm.
Discrimination against a group of people on the basis of religion and falls under the category of promoting enmity and hatred against a community – something that is illegal under Indian law, with section 153A of the IPC stating that:
“Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony.
(a) by words, either spoken or written, or by signs or by visible representations or otherwise, promotes or attempts to promote, on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, caste or community or any other ground whatsoever, disharmony or feelings of enmity, hatred or ill-will between different religious, racial, language or regional groups or castes or communities… shall be punished with imprisonment which may extend to three years, or with fine, or with both.”
The crime is so serious but religious wars among other intolerances are rampant on Twitter and the government ignores it.
The BJP IT cell trolls often trend Muktbharat Congress and indulge in a vindictive speech against the Congress volunteers. This has finally led to the Social Media Warriors campaign initiated by Congress in retaliation to the incessant online abuse. The BJP IT cell led by Amit Malviya, national leading BJP’s Information & Technology department has even created fake viral news, often debunked by Alt News.
In a wrap-up, it is extremely important that Indians remain on a global platform such as Twitter, which encourages inclusiveness, tolerance, and open-mindedness to other cultures and people. If Indians retreat to only Koo, leaving Twitter, it would cut itself out from the rest of the world, not a good idea when India wants progression; trade, and connectivity. Businesses and news also collaborate on Twitter.
While Koo could help Indians to connect, the trolls would again abuse different thinking Indians. The hatred inflicted on Twitter by the same people who would go on Koo, so it is very unlikely that a deeply divided nation could coexist on Koo. It is also evident that the “freedom of speech” on Koo would be unleashed on the “secular” thinking Indians by the old trolls in the new platform.
Most Indians would opt to remain on Twitter and perhaps as some jokingly say Twitter would be released of the litter when the two sides do not have to engage and clash with each other.
There is just a question of why certain people in India could not be civil enough to follow social norms and remain on Twitter, and also simultaneously be on Koo if they want, why talk about banning Twitter? This reveals the levels of maturity and depths of intolerance people have fallen into.
Ultimately, we should never reach a place where the government bans Twitter completely for it will be a living nightmare to be abused by trolls on Koo with perhaps no hope of immunity, sanctity, or protection from the government. After all, they got their foretaste of its bitter fruit on Twitter.