Twitter has recently set the cat among the pigeons when it announced that it would selectively censor tweets based on the country from which the service is being accessed. For example, a tweet that is offensive to Indians will only be censored in India, but it will still be available to see in other countries of the world. There has been widespread condemnation of this move and internet activists have been up in arms, demanding a roll back of this new policy.
Interestingly, a few of our very own Telugu celebrities too aired their views about this new policy from twitter. Mahesh Babu has enthusiastically welcomed the move “It’s brilliant if they are doing this. I believe that people should not discuss personal issues via Twitter. Now-a-days there are a lot of things that should not be on such a public forum— especially swear words. So many ridiculous tweets — so it is good if they will be filtering it.”, said Mahesh.
Lakshmi Manchu, the beautiful and talented daughter of Dr. Mohan Babu, has mixed feelings about the issue.“It is like taking away our fundamental right. But, as the world is getting bigger, it also getting scary and unpredictable. I just hope that whatever decision the government has taken, it is in the best interests of its people.”, says Lakshmi.
Other actors were either heard expressing their displeasure or having a neutral attitude towards it. It is fine if this is used in the interest of ‘national safety’. But if the Govt. misuses this rule to suppress expression of genuine citizens grief, that will become a problem. What say folks?