The Indian government has asked Twitter to take down tweets by Freedom House on declining internet freedom in India, Entrackr reported today. The news was also confirmed by South Asia Index.
Freedom House is a US-based human rights watchdog. The tweets in question had allegedly promoted Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2021 report.
Entrackr said it had viewed a copy of Twitter's disclosure. It also noted that the tweets had all used a "version of the world map" with borders disputed by India, and said this was a "possible reason why they were singled out for compliance".
The report, released last March, had accused the Modi government and the BJP of “continuing to crack down on critics during the year” and of “tragically driving India itself toward authoritarianism”. It downgraded India's status from "free" to "partly free".
The report said that the Indian government’s response to Covid included a “ham-fisted lockdown” which resulted in the dangerous and unplanned displacement of millions of internal migrant workers. It also said political rights and civil liberties in the country have deteriorated since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014.
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