: ‘Sinister form of censorship’: India’s ‘cyber volunteer’ programme pits citizens against each other #IndiaNEWS The group that ran the Hindutva Watch handle on Twitter – which flagged instances

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‘Sinister form of censorship’: India’s ‘cyber volunteer’ programme pits citizens against each other #IndiaNEWS
The group that ran the Hindutva Watch handle on Twitter – which flagged instances of violence and bigotry from an extreme form of Hindu nationalism – had long been accustomed to being abused and trolled for content critical of the Indian government.But even they were stunned when the account with nearly 26,000 followers was abruptly suspended in April this year with no reason given.The suspension of that, and dozens of accounts deemed to be critical of the government, came shortly after the launch of a cybercrime volunteers programme by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to report illegal or unlawful online content.Citizen volunteers, or “good Samaritans�, are required to maintain “strict confidentiality� and report child sex abuse material, as well as online content “disturbing public order� or communal harmony, and against India’s integrity, the home ministry said.For activists, journalists and others critical of the government, it has become harder to distinguish between trolls, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party’s technology cell and the cyber volunteers – estimated to number in the hundreds.“For us, Twitter was important to expose communalism, hate speech, fake news and pseudoscience spread by right-wing forces,� said a spokesperson for Hindutva Watch who asked not to be named for safety reasons.“For this, we have been trolled, abused, threatened,�...Read more

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