Twitter, the Microblogging giant based out of the United States which has been accused of disproportionately targetting the non-left voices in the US through its unilateral fact-checks has now done the same in India.
On Tuesday (December 2), it targeted BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya who three days ago had countered Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who had shared a still photograph of a security personnel hitting a Sikh man who was protesting against the farm bill.
The still photo would lead anyone to the conclusion that the police officer had hurt the farmer, however, there is also a video of the incident wherein it is very clear the farmer was not hurt in any way.
In the same tweet, Malviya labelled Rahul Gandhi’s image as propaganda aimed at giving a false impression and now twitter has flagged this tweet as “Manipulated Media”.
There was an immediate backlash against Twitter for failing to institute any warning on Rahul Gandhi’s tweet, and labelling Malviya’s fact-check as manipulated.
Rahul Gandhi must be the most discredited opposition leader India has seen in a long long time. https://t.co/9wQeNE5xAP pic.twitter.com/b4HjXTHPSx
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) November 28, 2020
However, some news outlets have alleged that Malviya had posted a cropped video of the incident with another security personnel having hit the leg of the said protester moments earlier.
We all know the image of the cop beating the farmer is fake. But guess what @Twitter does. They label the fact-check as fake & the fake news goes unchecked. Precursor to full scale election interference pic.twitter.com/R0kz1C9KE7
— Abhijit Iyer-Mitra (@Iyervval) December 2, 2020
Twitter, Facebook and Google have been in the eye of the storm and twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who appeared before a Senate committee was slammed by US Senator Ted Cruz over its censorship of Hunter Biden the son of now President-elect Joe Biden stories published by the New York Post.
During the US Presidential elections, Twitter had added numerous disclaimers and restricted Donald Trump’s tweets when he had alleged electoral fraud.
In India, Twitter had cancelled handles without any notice or explanation. Scientist and Professor of Jawaharlal Nehru University Dr. Anand Ranganathan and True Indology who have been countering the left through facts had their accounts suspended frequently by Twitter.