Monitoring Desk
NEW DELHI: India’s government has allegedly asked YouTube and Twitter to remove links to a BBC documentary regarding the 2002 Gujarat riots and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, local Indian media reported.
On video-sharing networks and microblogging, several YouTube videos and tweets from the documentary “India: The Modi Question” are no longer accessible.
The clips were removed a day after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak had distanced himself from the documentary series. He said he “does not agree with the characterization” of his Indian counterpart in the United Kingdom’s (UK) parliament by Pakistan-origin MP Imran Hussain; the Information and Broadcasting Ministry instructed the two social media giants to block the first episode of the documentary of BBC, NDTV reported.
According to NDTV, India instructed Twitter to delete over 50 tweets regarding the BBC documentary.
India’s opposition denounces government’s action
One of the opposition leaders whose tweet about the BBC documentary was deleted by Twitter was Derek O’Brien, Trinamool Congress MP.
“Censorship. Twitter has removed my tweet about the BBC documentary exposing Modi. It received hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter. The one-hour BBC documentary exposes how Narendra Modi hates minorities,” said O’Brien.
The I&B Ministry used emergency powers under the Information Technology Rules, 2021 to compel Twitter and YouTube to remove the links, and both Twitter and YouTube have agreed to comply.
India has referred to the documentary as “propaganda,” saying it lacks objectivity and shows a colonial mentality.
Insiders said the federal government has also ordered YouTube and Twitter to remove any new links to the BBC documentary that are posted or tweeted.
Not long ago, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari called Narendra Modi the “butcher of Gujarat,” referring to the Gujrat riots that the BBC produced the documentary about. Denouncing India’s role in stoking terrorism in Pakistan, Bilawal said that terrorist elements in Pakistan are getting support from India.
