By CJ Werleman
Published by CJ Werleman Independent, a crowdfunded and independent investigative journalism project that seeks to expose and end injustices against Muslims around the world. Please SUPPORT his fight against injustice and the Islamophobia Industry by clicking HERE.
Hindutva (definition): a Hindu-supremacist-nationalist ideology inspired by Germany’s Nazi Party that aims to transform India’s secular democracy into a tyrannical Hindu theocracy or Hindu rashtra (nation) by displacing or annihilating non-Hindu religious minorities.
As India experiences a record rate of COVID-19 infection and death, making it the world’s most distressed COVID nation on earth, with new daily infections surpassing 350,000 and deaths exceeding 30–40,000 per day, the Modi Government has launched a war against its online critics, rather than a war against the virus.
I have obtained a copy of the letter sent from the Government of India to Twitter and other social media companies:
This letter, along with Twitter’s acquiescence, has given Hindutva groups and individuals carte blanche to target and remove anti-Hindutva and human rights activists that have dedicated their social media accounts to exposing and raising awareness about this hateful and fascist ideology, one that has brought Muslims to the brink of genocide in Assam and Kashmir, according to the world’s leading authority on genocide and ethnic cleansing — Dr. Gregory Stanton at Genocide Watch.
Hindutva groups and individuals are now openly boasting of successfully pressuring Twitter into removing accounts belonging to anti-Hindutva and human rights activists, accounts that in no way have violated Twitter’s rules regarding hate speech.
This week, the account “Hindutva Watch” received a notice from Twitter after posting a link to the following article:
Hindutva Watch didn’t write the article. The article was published by a mainstream Indian magazine — the Print — but the article is critical of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a Hindutva organization, so Twitter sent Hindutva Watch this email on 22 April:
Despite the fact Twitter advised it “had not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request,” Hindutva Watch’s account was suspended 48 hours later:
So what made Twitter change its mind towards Hindutva Watch in that 48 hour period?
Well, based on celebratory tweets posted by Hindutva accounts and those identified as members of BJP IT Cell and pro-Modi government journalists, it’s clearly evident Twitter bowed to the pressure applied by Hindutva groups and individuals.
When I spoke with the owners of the Hindutva Watch account, who wish to remain anonymous out of concerns for their safety, they said:
“Today our worst fears have come true and our account is being stalked, spied upon by not only BJP IT cell but also Government of India (GOI) itself whose top level ministry seems to have complained to Twitter against us. As far as we know, Twitter suspends India based accounts at once at request of GOI and there is little transparency on how many details they share with GOI about their users.”
Essentially, Twitter is complicit in the mass censorship of its users at the behest of an ever-increasingly fascistic Indian Government, one that has produced a downgrading of the country’s democracy, according to Freedom House, and waged war against its critics, including journalists, human rights activists and academics.
Together, Twitter and India silenced accounts during the farmer’s protests:
And I have written extensively about how the Indian Government has silenced pro-Kashmiri accounts over the years:
If Twitter is committed to democracy and equality, then it will immediately restore Hindutva Watch and the hundreds of other anti-Hinduva accounts it has suspended and removed at the behest of the Indian Government and hateful Hindutva groups.
This story first appeared on cjwerleman.substack.com
