RT:
India has moved to block journalists’ Twitter accounts and websites, threatening to shut down Twitter entirely if it does not block those inciting violence. The warning comes amid an outbreak of ethnic clashes in the north of the country.
The government demanded that Twitter block 28 web pages with objectionable content.
Authorities claim that these web pages, as well as those already blocked, were responsible for disseminating misinformation that triggered the deadly riots.
A list leaked on the internet on Wednesday showed at least 300 URLs that the Indian government sought to ban following the racial violence that struck the northeastern province of Assam, killing over 80 people.
The list mostly included YouTube and Facebook pages, as well as 30 Twitter URLs and 11 blogger sites.
The Ministry of Communications said it was moving to tackle “inflammatory and harmful content continued to appear on the social networking sites.”
The government crackdown also targeted number of high-profile journalists, attempting to put a gag on their posts. Among them was Kanchan Gupta, considered a far-right sympathizer in India.
However, the block is only active if the Twitter accounts in question are accessed using HTTP and not HTTPS protocol, thus targeted users were able to keep tweeting even after the ban was enforced.
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“After checking and verifying we are saying, with responsibility, that the bulk of SMSs [text messages] spreading rumors about the northeast region have come from Pakistan,” an Interior Ministry spokesman said on Saturday.
Categories: Asia, India, Internet, Science and Technology, Web