Truthout: “Free-Speech Absolutist” Musk Is Abetting Modi’s Suppression of Voices in India - IAMC

Truthout: “Free-Speech Absolutist” Musk Is Abetting Modi’s Suppression of Voices in India

By Rasheed Ahmed &

Imagine waking up one morning to find out that the voice of your organization has been silenced. More uncanny is the fact that this suppression happened in the United States, a place we hold close to our hearts and where we believed, until recently, that free speech was valued.

But that’s exactly what happened to us, Rasheed Ahmed of the Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC) and Sunita Viswanath of Hindus for Human Rights (HFHR), on the morning of October 14. Our organizations’ X accounts had been blocked in India, a disturbing sign of the Indian government’s escalating attempts to stifle dissent wherever it arises. It took two days for us to learn that X had removed it, complying with a request filed by the Indian government made under the “Information Technology Act of 2000” — a capricious, ever-expanding Indian law which has already been used to silence scores of critical voices in India.

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