Viral tweets urged police to shoot Indian protesters

Thousands of tweets encouraging police brutality against protesting farmers controversial agricultural reforms in India – including calls to shoot them – flooded Twitter on Tuesday.

Violence bursts Tuesday in the Indian capital, after thousands of farmers, who have camped on the outskirts of New Delhi for nearly two months to protest government farm reforms that they say will hurt their livelihoods, entered town and clashed with the police. Protesters broke through police barricades around the city and stormed Fort Rouge, a national historic monument. At least one protester died when police used heavy batons and fired tear gas shells. Authorities have also shut down internet access in parts of the capital, which Indian authorities do often to cancel the protests.

On Twitter, supporters of India’s Hindu nationalist government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called the protesting farmers “terrorists” and encouraged police brutality against them. “They are not farmers. They are worms, wearing fake farmer masks, ”one of the viral tweets read, which uses the hashtag“ #shoot ”. “Asking @AmitShah #shoot on sight is only an option,” said another tweet, identifying India’s interior minister and Modi’s right-hand man responsible for law and order in the country.

“Hit them with your batons, Delhi police,” editor of pro-government propaganda blog tweeted in hindi. “We are with you.”

Tuesday morning, “Shoot” was one of the hottest topics on the platform in India, in addition to the Hindi phrase “Dilli Police lath bajao” – which loosely translates to “Delhi Police, hit them with your batons. “.

Twitter did not remove “Shoot” from its hot topics for at least a few hours – after a public outcry and after BuzzFeed News emailed asking for comment. The company also deleted the blog editor’s tweet saying he was breaking Twitter rules and suspended his account for 12 hours. Yet the Hindi phrase encouraging police to use their batons remained a trending topic for at least an hour. A search for “#shoot” revealed hundreds of tweets asking police to shoot at protesters.

“We have taken steps today to protect the conversation on our service from attempts to incite violence, abuse and threats which could trigger the risk of damage offlineA Twitter spokesperson told BuzzFeed News. “Our team will take rigorous application act judiciously and impartially on content, trends, Tweets and accounts that violate the Twitter Rules. We strongly encourage all users of the service to familiarize themselves with the Twitter rules and report everything they believe is in violation. We are monitoring the situation closely and remain vigilant. “

In the United States, multiple technological platforms including Twitter permanently banned former President Donald Trump from the platform after his protesters stormed the Capitol earlier this month. Trump had been banned from the platform “because of the risk of further violence”, tweeted Vijaya Gadde, Legal, Policy, Trust and Security Manager at Twitter.

Experts have argued that Silicon Valley companies like Twitter and Facebook have a double standard when it comes to applying their own policies globally. In non-Western countries like India, which has fallen into authoritarianism under the Modi government in recent years, technology platforms often evolve slowly or do not act against people who use them as a weapon to harm the real world.

Last year, for example, Twitter left dozens of tweets doxing Hindu-Muslim interfaith couples remain on the platform until BuzzFeed News asks them about them. In December, protesters gathered outside Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif., Claiming the social network was content censorship posted in support of Indian farmers protesting. And the Wall Street Journal reported Ankhi Das, a top Facebook executive in India, had blocked the company from taking action against a politician belonging to Modi’s party for posting hate speech, saying it would harm the company’s business interests.

“Powerful interests around the world have learned that the tools of Silicon Valley can be used to create a bonfire for human rights, but the only time the platforms care is when they get bad press, ”Alaphia Zoyab, director of advocacy at Reset, a nonprofit that aims to tackle the information crisis created by tech platforms, told BuzzFeed News.

“When Silicon Valley has to choose between protecting commercial interests or protecting human rights, it chooses the former,” she added. “The point is, their current business model is fundamentally incompatible with democracy and freedom, because a determined army of trolls on the side of those in power can simply hijack the platform to demand violence.

Gadde did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Twitter declined to respond whether accounts in India promoting violence would be banned permanently.