“Twitter Files Part 2” recently exposed how Twitter in pre-Elon Musk times blacklisted and prevented disfavoured tweets from trending. A tweet thread, posted by journalist Bari Weiss, was retweeted by Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Friday and the owner of the microblogging website also announced that the company is working on a software that will let people know whether they have been shadowbanned. The revelation sparked criticism from multiple quarters, including from India.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, has called the ‘Twitter Files’ “disturbing” and a “vindication of a very widely held view that all was not right” at the company.
What is Twitter shadowbanning?
Shadowbanning is a process that Twitter used to limit the visibility of tweets posted by far-right users. Various right-wing thinkers were put on the “Search Blacklist”, “Trends Blacklist” and “Do not Amplify” categories which prevented their posts from trending on Twitter.
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and IT, has called the ‘Twitter Files’ “disturbing” and a “vindication of a very widely held view that all was not right” at the company.
What is Twitter shadowbanning?
Shadowbanning is a process that Twitter used to limit the visibility of tweets posted by far-right users. Various right-wing thinkers were put on the “Search Blacklist”, “Trends Blacklist” and “Do not Amplify” categories which prevented their posts from trending on Twitter.
“Government won’t allow weaponisation of information”
The minister said that the recent amendments to the Information Technology (IT) Rules are “meant to deal with the possibility of this happening”. He also noted that the government would consider tweaking the rules further if social media platforms “distort conversation on the Internet, which will not be tolerated going forward”.
Chandrasekhar told the media that the government won’t allow weaponisation of information. “We can only appeal to social media platforms to heed to the new rules. However, if they still violate them, then we will remove them from using safe hours provisions and they will be liable for prosecution,” he was quoted as saying.
The minister highlighted that the government had no evidence that it was being done in such a systematic and planned way. “So now we could be forced to rethink whether we need to do more to strengthen the rules further. And therefore we may bring in provisions to deal with shadow banning while finalising the Digital India Act,” he said.
The IT minister also said the social media platforms would have to practice self regulation.
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