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I think all instances of censorship are bad, personally. However, it isn’t as simple as comparing cases in different countries. Twitter/X has a policy of abiding by local laws. So if they feel government ordered censorship is legal, they’ll comply. Otherwise, they’ll refuse and challenge it. If there is no way to challenge an illegal order, they’ll refuse it and go public as they have in Brazil.

One difference in India is that the orders are not secret - they don’t come with gag orders to hide censorship from the public. Another difference is that they are legal, due to a number of regulations their government passed over the last several years. That doesn’t mean Twitter accepted these censorship demands because they (or Musk) are friendly with that government, which is a conspiracy theory I’ve seen spreading in recent times. Twitter/X literally sued the Indian government over these orders and lost back in 2023 (note Musk acquired the company in 2022), at which point they had to pay fines and comply. It’s not just Twitter/X either - Google also complies with the same orders in India and other countries, for example removing content from YouTube.


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