Twitter has been wielding a defiant stance against the Indian government ever since the revised IT laws were brought in and the deadline to adhere to them elapsed on May 26. While all the other Silicon Valley companies such as Instagram, Facebook, Google, WhatsApp accepted the new guidelines, Twitter appears to be carrying its rebellion act. With such sketchy behaviour on the part of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey who is yet to mutter a single syllable on the issue, it seems as if a greater power likely coming from Washington is orchestrating this chain of events and using Twitter as an instrument of pursuing regime change in India.
In moves that seem highly nonsensical, brazenly biased, and therefore deliberate, Twitter has been provoking the Indian government, which is burdened with the pressure to ban the microblogging platform in India, with the zeal of an activist or revolutionary against an attack on free speech when in reality there is no such thing. It is clear that Twitter has weighed its options to have itself banned in India to serve a higher authority back in the home country, the United States, which will pounce on any chance to depict India in poor light no matter how futile the process is at putting down the people of India. But such a challenge from Twitter to the Indian government must not be seen entirely as bait. The Indian government must indeed ban Twitter for a day or week or longer even to send the message that it will not be messed with.
There’s no beating around the bush that former American President Donald Trump and his ultimate ouster from the White House was engineered by the grand coalition of Democrats with the tech giants. Twitter was the head sepoy in the battle and lead from the front and created a lopsided field where only anti-Trump agenda was welcomed and pushed on the platform. As a result, Democrat leader Joe Biden, leaning on the crutches of social media platforms and left-liberal brigade managed to gain access to the White House.
Similarly, there is a clear divide in the ideologies of Washington and New Delhi. Joe Biden and his coterie of left-leaning Democrats cannot withstand a conservative, nationalist leader making giant strides on the global map.
Recently, the Biden administration jumped in to talk about the death of ‘Father’ Stan Swamy. Instead of noting that Swamy was an accused in the Bhima Koregaon case, and that the 84-year-old died in hospital due to cardiac arrest after about a month of treatment, a tweet from the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom said, “We are saddened by the death of Father Stan Swamy, a Jesuit priest & tribal rights activist, who died in Indian custody under charges of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. We call on all governments to respect the vital role of human rights activists in healthy democracies.” This just shows how the Biden administration is focused on turning opinions against the incumbent Modi government by hook or by crook.
For the first time, America’s authority in the region is being challenged. New Delhi is comfortable leading the Quad along with Australia and Japan in its battle with China, while the US mollycoddles Jinping, despite receiving little to no love from his side. Add to that the Afghanistan issue, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi is actively starting to assume a bigger role as American troops continue to pull out.
Hence, pooling in the resources and creating a virtual war against the Indian government appears to be the next alternative to engineer a coup. With three years still to go for the next general elections, the unholy nexus between Twitter and Biden has started to upend the war.
India is one of Twitter’s biggest markets and no company would dare try to kick its own business. According to a Statista report, in January 2021, the company reported 353 million monetizable daily active users. In 2020, Twitter’s annual revenue came to 3.72 billion U.S. dollars. However, the company has only been able to report a positive net income in 2018 and 2019, revealing a struggle to monetize users.
With such dibbly dobbly financial numbers, only the backing of the US government can explain the provocative stance taken by Twitter against the central administration of India. For Biden and Dorsey, the ends justify the means. They are waiting for the government to pull the trigger and come down on it, most certainly in a way reminiscent to that of Nigeria where President Muhammadu Buhari banned it outrightly.
Modern politics is all about the narrative war, whichever side dominates it, ends up on the winning side. While Twitter is playing the long game with Biden in its corner, the Indian government, learning a lesson or two from the ostracization process of Trump appears to have developed its counter-attack manoeuvre. The government is using the legal book to corner the microblogging platform from all flanks.
Reported by TFI extensively, Twitter has already lost its intermediary status in the country and could be tried under the Penal laws of the country, which means no executive or high-level functionary of the company will have immunity when the authorities come knocking.
Even a dominant left-liberal brigade with its filled coffers will not be able to twist the narrative here. India is a sovereign country with its sovereign laws and despite having the backing of Biden, at the end of the day, Twitter will have to adhere to the Indian laws.
However, the biggest existential crisis the company is facing right now is the FIR lodged by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) against it. Reported by TFI, on Wednesday (June 29), Delhi Police Cyber Cell registered a case against the California-headquartered company for the presence of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on its platform, based on a complaint filed by the statutory body.
Last month, the NCPCR wrote to the IT Ministry requesting it to restrain the access of children to Twitter within seven days until the social media platform is deemed to be safe for children and starts following India’s IT rules. According to India Today, NCPCR chairperson Priyank Kanoongo had said that Twitter had allowed sharing of WhatsApp links which showed child porn. He further cited the case of rape threats being given in the comments section below a child’s photo on Twitter.
While Twitter and Biden have more or less played their remaining cards, the Indian government is yet to get on the front foot. The left may have won the narrative war in the States but India is a different ball game altogether. It will take something substantial on part of the duo to even land a scratch on PM Modi and his caravan.