Fake Indian Twitter accounts blocked: gov’t intervention suspected

A number of fake Twitter accounts, accused of misinforming people in India about violence against Muslims have been taken down.

While a number of news outlets have been reporting that the social network had ceded to demands from the Indian government that it censor inflammatory tweets, it’s uncertain who’s actually behind the takedowns.

According to an update from Indian tech news site Plugged.In, it nay gave actually been Indian ISPs blocking the pages of several fake Prime Minster’s Office (PMO) accounts.

That could explain why people in the country trying to reach the accounts, can sometimes see the updates but are at other times confronted with a message informing them that the page has been blocked:

“This website/URL has been blocked until further notice either pursuant to Court orders or on the Directions issued by the Department of Telecommunications”.

That indicates that it may well be the Indian government doing what it threatened to if Twitter failed to comply with its directive to censor “objectionable content”

In January, the government tried to censor social networks for posting content that was offensive to Indian culture. While the current situation is undoubtedly more volatile, it seems to demonstrate a similar misunderstanding on the part of the state about the nature of social networks.