As India reeled from the devastating covid-19 deaths, it censored critical content on social media. @project_polis's @watchthestate was temporarily restricted twice in one week. @kiccovich and I write about this censorship for the @washingtonpost https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/05/06/india-social-media-covid-19/

Since March, as the Indian health infrastructure completely crumbled, social media platforms have become the de facto helplines where helpless citizens ask for help and offer mutual support.

To maintain a lived memory of the present and gather evidence to hold the state accountable, our account has been collecting and sharing instances of state violence from reliable news sources.

The Twitter restrictions, for a few hours each on April 22 and April 29, on @watchthestate happened soon after we started curating regular threads with reports published by national and international news outlets.

But there have been many media reports on how the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Indian government ordered Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor dozens of posts criticizing the administration’s response to the pandemic.

Twitter complied with the Indian government’s request and took down 52 tweets by elected officials, journalists and editors that criticized the government’s response to the pandemic.

Twitter also suspended Hindutva Watch, an account that shared news reports published by mainstream Indian outlets.

Facebook, meanwhile, temporarily blocked posts with the hashtag #ResignModi. More than 12,000 posts calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were briefly hidden on April 28.

The silencing of critical voices is not new. The Indian government has consistently restricted and censored physical and online spaces by abusing local laws and imposing a series of regulations aimed at tech giants.

These include getting social media and tech companies such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to censor content and issuing orders that restrict free speech. These arbitrary restrictions have been put in place without transparency, accountability or respect for due process.

Much of what India is experiencing today has been fully tested over decades in Kashmir and other so-called “disturbed” states, where military and political impunity, accompanied by the erasure or incarceration of antagonistic voices, have long been the norm.

A 2019 report by @pressfreedom found that nearly 1 million tweets have been removed since 2017. ( @AASchapiro )