Indian government asks Twitter and other platforms to take down critical Covid-19 related posts

The orders come as daily infection statistics made a world record last week

Twitter and Facebook have reportedly removed about 100 posts and URLs that were critical of Indian government's handling of the current Covid-19 crisis, as cases of infection hit a world record again on Sunday.

According to Reuters, microblogging site Twitter removed over 50 posts from its platform on 24 April. The company said that it had notified all affected users of the action taken in response to a legal request from the government.

The takedown orders come as India currently fights a surging second wave of the pandemic. On Sunday, the country reported about 350,000 new infections, and over 2,800 deaths, marking the fifth consecutive day it set a world record in daily infections. The health system of the country appears to be reeling under pressure, with hospital facing shortage of beds and medical oxygen for serious patients.

Amid the grim situation in India, critics have been accusing PM Narendra Modi's central government and state authorities of having failed completely to handle the crisis.

The majority of the tweets that were removed by Twitter on Saturday featured content related to shortage of oxygen, beds, medicines, gathering of crowds at Kumbh Mela, and mass cremations.

Many of them were posted by politicians from opposition parties, including Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera, MP Revanth Reddy, labour minister Moloy Ghatak in opposition-ruled West Bengal, ABP News editor Pankaj Jha, and Actor Vineet Kumar Singh.

Mr Ghatak accused the PM of "mismanagement" and directly responsible for the deaths.

A tweet from Reddy used a hashtag that blamed Modi for the "disaster".

The government said that those posts used unrelated, out of context images and misinformation, as well as communally sensitive material, to create panic about the Covid-19 situation in the country.

"The government welcomes criticisms, genuine requests for help as well as suggestions in the collective fight against Covid-19, but it is necessary to take action against those users who are misusing social media during this grave humanitarian crisis for unethical purposes," an official said.

While tweets have been blocked for viewing in India, they will continue to remain visible outside the country.

In an emailed statement, Twitter told Reuters that it reviews a valid legal request under both local law and Twitter rules.

If content "is determined to be illegal in a particular jurisdiction, but not in violation of Twitter's rules," the platform withholds access to the content "in India only".

This is not the first time that Indian government has directed social media platforms to remove some specific posts.

The two sides have clashed in recent months over an alleged attempt by the federal government to more strictly police what is said online.

In February, Twitter angered Indian government by refusing its request to remove more than 1,100 accounts and posts, which the government said were spreading misinformation about farmer protests.

Twitter said that it was unable to fully comply with orders from the government as it believed they were not coherent with Indian law.

While the company permanently suspended some accounts, those run by journalists, activists, politicians and news media were not deleted, in line with its policy of defending freedom of speech.