Tell Elon Musk to Stand Up to Narendra Modi and Unblock the BBC Documentary
Elon Musk is at it again. Officials from India’s ruling right-wing party say Twitter complied with the India government’s demands to remove a documentary critical of the regime.
This isn’t the first time Musk has silenced journalists on Twitter.
Only a little over a month ago, he suspended the accounts of several journalists who had covered Twitter critically — reporting for CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Intercept, and more — under flimsy pretenses.
Now, new reporting reveals that Twitter agreed to censor access to a BBC documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in a genocidal massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat. At the request of Kanchan Gupta, the senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting who called the documentary “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage,” Twitter blocked all links to the film.
Twitter went further to also specifically remove posts by members of Parliament from the opposition All India Trinamool Congress party and even blocked Indian audiences from seeing posts by actor John Cusack that link to the documentary.
This is unacceptable. We must not let these attempts to silence freedom of the press go unchallenged. Will you join us in standing against Elon Musk’s censorship?
Elon Musk has buckled under public pressure before. That’s why he let the journalists he suspended last month back on the platform a few weeks later. That’s how he’s made several major decisions about the future of the platform too, including the decision to let Donald Trump return.
Help us send this important message to Musk: Journalists and the public deserve a platform where they can express their opinions freely and without fear of retaliation from a billionaire owner.
It's time for Elon Musk to live up to his own rhetoric on free speech. Sign the petition and demand Twitter restore the BBC’s documentary and stop silencing journalists now.
TO: Elon Musk, CEO
CC: Twitter Board of Directors
Twitter must stop silencing journalists
Last month, Twitter suspended the accounts of several journalists — reporting for CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, The Intercept, and others — who reported critically on Twitter’s treatment of free speech issues under Elon Musk’s management as CEO.
Now, new reporting reveals that Twitter agreed to censor access to a BBC documentary critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in a genocidal massacre in the Indian state of Gujarat. At the request of Kanchan Gupta, the senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting who called the documentary “hostile propaganda and anti-India garbage,” Twitter blocked all links to the film.
Twitter went further to also specifically remove posts by members of Parliament from the opposition All India Trinamool Congress party and even blocked Indian audiences from seeing posts by actor John Cusack that link to the documentary.
This is unacceptable. Journalists and the public deserve a platform where they can express their opinions freely and without fear of retaliation.
We demand that Elon Musk live up to his own rhetoric on free speech as CEO of Twitter and stop silencing journalists now.
Thank you,
[1] Twitter suspends several journalists who shared information about Musk's jet
[2] Journalists who won’t delete Musk tweets remain locked out of Twitter
[3] Elon Musk Caves to Pressure From India to Remove BBC Doc Critical of Modi