[Writers including Salman Rushdie express anger after journalist Salil Tripathi has account suspended]
By Hannah Ellis-Petersen
Writers including Salman Rushdie and
Amitav Ghosh expressed anger after Tripathi, who is chair of PEN
International’s Writers
in Prison Committee, had his Twitter account suspended on Sunday without
warning.
A rightwing Hindu nationalist group
called Deshi Army, which has 26,000 followers on Twitter, claimed victory after
the suspension. Deshi Army was recently praised online by Kapil
Mishra, a hardline leader from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata party (BJP), who said: “This team is doing amazing work” in targeting
critics of the government online.
Tripathi, who was born in Mumbai
but lives in New York, is a writer for various publications and a contributing
editor for the Indian publications Mint and the Caravan, and often critiques
Hindu nationalism. He has written a book about its implications for freedom of
expression in India and most recently wrote a piece for
Foreign Policy magazine titled Why India has Become a Different Country, about
the erosion of democracy under the BJP government.
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Sunday was the anniversary of
the demolition
of the Babri mosque, a Muslim mosque that was torn to the ground by a Hindu
nationalist mob in 1992. Tripathi posted a video on Twitter of him
reading his
own poem which addressed the demolition, Indian independence and the
2002 religious riots in Gujarat, where upwards of 1000 people, mainly Muslims,
were killed.
His account was suspended shortly
afterwards. A statement from Twitter said Tripathi’s account “has been
temporarily suspended for publishing a list that violates our abusive
behaviour policy”.
Speaking to the Guardian, Tripathi
said: “Twitter’s decision-making has been opaque and arbitrary. Twitter is a
private space which creates the illusion of being a public space, which it
clearly is not, and takes decisions on free speech and human rights that it
does not have the mandate, expertise, or capacity for.”
Some of India’s most well-known
writers, lawyers and journalists expressed outrage at his suspension. Rushdie
tweeted:
Ghosh wrote that he was “beyond
astonished to learn that Salil Tripathi’s Twitter account has been suspended.
Salil is an outstanding journalist, writer and human rights activist.”
The writer Nilanjana Roy tweeted:
“Why has Salil Tripathi’s Twitter account been suspended? Earlier today, he’d
tweeted about the demolition of the Babri Masjid, expressing the continuing
anguish many also feel – hope Twitter India will restore his voice soonest.”
Suketu Mehta, also an author, said Tripathi was “one of our most important
human rights activists. Absolutely unacceptable for Twitter India to suspend
his account. India needs Salil’s voice!”
Shashi Tharoor, a politician for
the opposition Congress party, also expressed concern. “I can’t believe this,”
he wrote. “How on earth could Twitter suspend the account of a
highly respected writer, author and human rights activist? Do their algorithms
have no human being applying common sense before undertaking such actions?”
Tripathi emphasised the
intimidation and harassment now faced by journalists working in India under the
BJP government. “Many more journalists and writers have endured far worse than
what I am experiencing at the moment,” he said. “They are the real heroes.”
Twitter has been accused of
censoring the prominent Indian journalist Salil Tripathi by
suspending his account, after he tweeted on subjects including the anniversary
of the demolition of
the Babri mosque and his work on India’s shrinking democratic space.
Writers including Salman Rushdie and
Amitav Ghosh expressed anger after Tripathi, who is chair of PEN
International’s Writers
in Prison Committee, had his Twitter account suspended on Sunday without
warning.
A rightwing Hindu nationalist group
called Deshi Army, which has 26,000 followers on Twitter, claimed victory after
the suspension. Deshi Army was recently praised online by Kapil
Mishra, a hardline leader from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya
Janata party (BJP), who said: “This team is doing amazing work” in targeting
critics of the government online.
Tripathi, who was born in Mumbai
but lives in New York, is a writer for various publications and a contributing
editor for the Indian publications Mint and the Caravan, and often critiques
Hindu nationalism. He has written a book about its implications for freedom of
expression in India and most recently wrote a piece for
Foreign Policy magazine titled Why India has Become a Different Country, about
the erosion of democracy under the BJP government.
Sunday was the anniversary of
the demolition
of the Babri mosque, a Muslim mosque that was torn to the ground by a Hindu
nationalist mob in 1992. Tripathi posted a video on Twitter of him
reading his
own poem which addressed the demolition, Indian independence and the
2002 religious riots in Gujarat, where upwards of 1000 people, mainly Muslims,
were killed.
His account was suspended shortly
afterwards. A statement from Twitter said Tripathi’s account “has been
temporarily suspended for publishing a list that violates our abusive
behaviour policy”.
Speaking to the Guardian, Tripathi
said: “Twitter’s decision-making has been opaque and arbitrary. Twitter is a
private space which creates the illusion of being a public space, which it
clearly is not, and takes decisions on free speech and human rights that it
does not have the mandate, expertise, or capacity for.”
Some of India’s most well-known
writers, lawyers and journalists expressed outrage at his suspension. Rushdie
tweeted:
This is
an outrageous act of censorship against one of the most important advocates of
free speech. @Twitter stop it now! @jack what’s going on?
Ghosh wrote that he was “beyond
astonished to learn that Salil Tripathi’s Twitter account has been suspended.
Salil is an outstanding journalist, writer and human rights activist.”
The writer Nilanjana Roy tweeted:
“Why has Salil Tripathi’s Twitter account been suspended? Earlier today, he’d
tweeted about the demolition of the Babri Masjid, expressing the continuing
anguish many also feel – hope Twitter India will restore his voice soonest.”
Suketu Mehta, also an author, said Tripathi was “one of our most important
human rights activists. Absolutely unacceptable for Twitter India to suspend
his account. India needs Salil’s voice!”
Shashi Tharoor, a politician for
the opposition Congress party, also expressed concern. “I can’t believe this,”
he wrote. “How on earth could Twitter suspend the account of a
highly respected writer, author and human rights activist? Do their algorithms
have no human being applying common sense before undertaking such actions?”
Tripathi emphasised the
intimidation and harassment now faced by journalists working in India under the
BJP government. “Many more journalists and writers have endured far worse than
what I am experiencing at the moment,” he said. “They are the real heroes.”
