Chinmayi Arun on India and the Future of the Internet
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 18 February 2021
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Right now in India, there’s a legal battle that could portend the future of the internet. In this episode of Arbiters of Truth, Lawfare’s miniseries on disinformation and misinformation, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic talked to Chinmayi Arun, a resident fellow at the Information Society Project at Yale Law School and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. She discussed one of the biggest stories about freedom of expression online today—the battle between Twitter and the Indian government, which has demanded that Twitter geoblock a large number of accounts, including the account of a prominent investigative magazine, in response to protests by tens of thousands of farmers across India. Chinmayi walked us through the political context of the farmers’ protests, how the clash between Twitter and the Indian government is part of an increasingly constrained environment for freedom of expression in India, and where this battle might end up.
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Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:32.6 | So, the blocking tools are interesting because they allow the government to issue an |
| 0:38.3 | order to platforms, you know, asking them to disable access to content. |
| 0:43.2 | And you know, on the other, the Twitter side of this is also that it was in January 2012 |
| 0:48.9 | that Twitter changed its global policy to basically facilitate government blocking around |
| 0:56.0 | the world. |
| 0:57.0 | So, that's when Twitter said that, okay, we've worked out now how we can restrict content |
| 1:00.4 | in specific countries, which means that if we get government orders, you know, from |
| 1:04.8 | India, Pakistan or Turkey, we will geoblock the content just in that country. |
| 1:09.9 | And so, we've got the combination now, right? |
| 1:11.9 | Twitter's capacity and willingness to do it and the blocking orders. |
| 1:16.9 | I'm Quinta Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, February 18, 2021. |
| 1:25.3 | Right now in India, there's a legal battle that could portend the future of the internet. |
| 1:30.8 | In this episode of Arbados of Truth, LawFair's mini-series on disinformation and misinformation, |
| 1:36.7 | Evelyn Dwacken I talked to Chinmanya Run, a resident fellow of the Information Society |
| 1:41.8 | Project at Gyal Law School, and an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center of Internet and Society |
| 1:47.1 | at Harvard University. |
| 1:49.3 | She came on to discuss one of the biggest stories about freedom of expression online today. |
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