Any social media platform operating in India should have just ONE rule: "Anything you post here is subject to Indian laws and can be acted upon, never by us, but by Indian legal authorities."

Anything more is an instrument for control and prone to bias.

It is that simple.

Our Constitution doesn't guarantee absolute Freedom of Expression. It has spawned laws that are draconian and subjective and tailor-made for misuse.

But the monopoly of bias should rest with the Constitution not the platform.

I'd much rather a judge ban me than a platform.

Using "dehumanising" language against religious groups will now be Hate Speech.

So does Twitter consider dozens of verses, including 5:59, 7:166, 2:63, that dehumanise believers of other religions as apes, pigs, monkeys, rats, and cattle, as Hate Speech? https://twitter.com/TwitterSafety/status/1148608059972956160?s=20

Twitter CANNOT decide or editorialise; it should be just a platform. And so should also be Google. They were all platforms initially when they sucked in consumers. Once they trapped consumers they kept on changing and adding terms & rules. And now they are a law unto themselves.

1. As a consumer, one has a right to protest against the service provided.

2. What services like Twitter do is, because of their first-mover advantage, they suck in consumers, attracted by minimum terms & rules.

3. But soon the terms & rules keep on changing and increasing.

4. But the consumer is trapped, especially because Twitter and Facebook are interactive services that help build a brand, for example for a company or a politician, unlike a network provider that can be easily dumped for an alternative through portability.

5. Changing Terms & Rules after attracting consumers is entrapment and an unfair trade practice. [This is over and above the Public good that a platform service provider is supposed to do, to make unknown, marginalised voices be heard, free of religious or other suppression.]

6. If the Indian State - Legislature and Judiciary - is serious on tackling Twitter censorship it should insist that Twitter should revert to being just a platform, with no editorialising or censoring whatsoever. But is it? I don't think so.

~ End.

The threat of censorship is worse than censorship; for it is better to be blind than to be looking constantly over your shoulder.

The Indian courts MUST step in and restore the sanctity of freedom of speech. They must step in and restore @Twitter to being just a platform.

We are living in a world where you believe what you see, but unfortunately what you see is written by those who see what they believe.

My views on @TimesNow, on Twitter censorship and editorialising.