Twitter In Standoff With India's Government Over Free Speech And Local Law

On Feb. 1, the editor of an award-winning Indian magazine got a call from his social media manager: The magazine's Twitter account was down.

"I said, 'Are you sure? Can you just refresh, and check again?' " recalled Vinod K. Jose, executive editor of The Caravan, which covers politics and culture. "But she said, 'No, no, it's real.' "

Jose went online, and instead of The Caravan's tweets, he saw a message: "withheld in India in response to a legal demand."

It was one of more than 500 accounts — belonging to Indian activists, opposition politicians and media — that Twitter blocked that week, on orders from the Indian government.

Days earlier, farmers who'd been rallying for months against the deregulation of Indian agriculture clashed with police in the capital New Delhi. The mayhem overshadowed a military parade on India's Jan. 26 Republic Day holiday. Twitter was flooded with angry posts from both sides. The rhetoric was intense. People were using hashtags accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi of genocide against farmers.