The Twitter has said in its 20th transparency report that since the time the company prepared the report, various Governments have approached the company 47,572 times to remove content on 1,98,931 accounts.
Most demands were made by the US Government and its agencies. These demands were 20 percent of such demands in the world. India was at the second position and its demand was 19 percent of the total demands. The company said that its last ten years of experience states that the trend of imposing restrictions on the expression of ideas by Governments had been constantly increasing.
The Governments are paying special attention to journalists' tweets. From July to December 2021, India had the highest number of requests for removal of posted information/content. During the same period, India was among the top five countries that ordered bans on all types of Twitter users. Meanwhile, India raised 114, Turkey 78, Russia 55 and Pakistan 48 legal objections. Tweets of certified journalists and media organisations were also stopped.
Trends in the use of social media platforms are quite complex. The internet has become a repository of information and knowledge. Determining the accuracy of information and knowledge sources is a difficult task.
The information provided by Twitter calls for several types of analysis. Twitter is most used in the US where it has over 76 million users; Japan is second and India is third. More than 5.8 million people in Japan and 2.3 million people in India use Twitter.
It is important to see whether the journalists and media organizations are presenting the truth to the people by giving correct information about the events or the information is being distorted and presented in a wrong manner. Currently, many media houses are owned by corporate houses. These institutions refrain from putting facts and truth before people. In these times, the number of journalists bringing out the truth and correct information through social media, newspapers and TV channels is also decreasing.
While social media has brought about a democratic change in the expression of ideas through the internet that everyone has the right to express their opinion, there is also a tendency to post irresponsible, inflammatory content, and at times mis-information. Social media platforms, democratic organisations, journalists, thinkers, social activists and others need to work together to maintain a balance in the trend.
(A retired Principal, Malout, Punjab)
