The Indian government's recent demand that Twitter block some accounts, including several that parodied Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, has unleashed a storm of mockery and criticism from among the country's millions of Twitter users.
Topics like #GOIBlocks and #Emergency2012 (a reference to the national emergency declared when Indira Gandhi was prime minister which sharply curbed civil liberties) trended on Twitter as users expressed disgust at the move:
India. A perfect KGB state under Nazi surveillance. Ruled by a Fascist leader. #GOIBlocks #Emergency2012
- Sreedhar (@qinnairen) August 24, 2012
or solidarity with the Twitter users whose accounts were targeted:
Dear @barbarindian @kanchangupta @shivaroor and others targeted by #GOIBlocks censor, we are with YOU. This #Emergency2012 too shall pass.
- Kiran Kumar S (@KiranKS) August 23, 2012
Some of the user accounts the government requested be blocked, like @Barbarindian and @KachinGupta, have featured acerbic right-wing criticism of left-leaning policies. Others, like @DrYumYumSingh, are parodies of the prime minister's official account, @PMOIndia.
While Twitter users were upset, it is unclear whether any of the named Twitter users were ever blocked. A spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs told The New York Times that Twitter had not been cooperative. A Twitter spokeswoman said she had no comment.
The government's demands, details of which were made public Thursday, were part of a larger request that Internet service providers in India block more than 300 items, including videos and blog posts, in response to the recent unrest in Assam.
In response, on Thursday and Friday, some Twitter users in India switched their display pictures to black:
We are protesting social media censorship by changing our DP black.. Please support by changing ur DP and RT #GOIBlocks #BJP #TrustBJP
- Jiggs (@Sootradhar) August 23, 2012
Others used the occasion to criticize the already-under-fire prime minister and the Congress party, which controls the governing coalition:
Of course Manmohan had to take offense â€" who parodies an “already†parody??
- Rajiv Gandhi's Ghost (@rajivgaxdhi) August 23, 2012
The party and Mr. Singh have come under a hailstorm of criticism after a series of corruption scandals and missteps. Most recently, an investigation is under way into the allocation of India's coal assets (dubbed “Coalgateâ€), and the government has been assailed for promoting the power minister on the very day that India experienced the world's largest blackout.
Dear govt, your twitter blocks didn't work. Please go back to the coal blocks. #GOIBlocks - jatin gandhi (@jatingandhi) August 24, 2012
While local media outlets, including The Times of India, warned the government faced a “Twitter backlash,†the real impact of all this online outrage is questionable.
India's upper-class population, the people likeliest to have regular access to the Internet (and therefore to be on Twitter), are also notoriously absent at the polls, as data from recent Mumbai and Delhi elections illustrate.
There's few signs that the attempted crackdown could morph into India's equivalent of the Tahir Square protests. One user who was targeted decided to block himself, saying he was taking a break from Twitter for several weeks:
I have not been blocked. Even so, going off tw itter for two to four weeks to allow things to cool off and settle down. Have fun
- Dr Moneymohan Singh (@DrYumYumSingh) August 23, 2012
