SC advocate Sanjay Hegde

Twitter account

Lok Sabha elections

Nazism

Kavita Krishnan

Dalit scholars

journalists

academics and activists

is taking Twitter to court over blocking his account; this is a first-person account on AI joining hands with trolls to muzzle free speech.I joined Twitter nine years ago. It was a platform where I held conversations with the world, a place where I made several acquaintances that went on to become actual friends, offline. Twitter dominated my mind space. It was like a library where I could curate content; a compendium of sorts, where I contribute stories that I read which I found useful.Being a public platform I naturally hoped it to be a neutral arbiter in the conversation hosted on it. Given the highly polarised times we find ourselves in, Twitter has the further responsibility to ensure that hate speech and incitement to violence are not allowed to prevail on its platform. It seems that it has left the policing of its guidelines to be preyed on by artificial intelligence and bots. Sadly, my experience of having my account blocked by Twitter has taught me that its guidelines can be gamed easily by organised cyber bullies of troll factories and IT cells.Today IT cells have been clearly told to target and take down as many antigovernment and dissident accounts as possible. I suspect the government is attempting to muzzle free speech online and that the platform is compromised.Several members of right wing organisations are currently claiming credit for having brought down myby mass reporting it. It is evident that that those who control the troll factories feel threatened and insecure by those with independent thought. They feel uncomfortable by those who provide a counter-majoritarian narrative, which comes with deft reasoning and specific historic references; this is obviously inconvenient to a dispensation that peddles mumbo-jumbo. I suspect someone must have issued orders to mute my voice.This is obviously not the first time I have felt targeted on Twitter for my views.It all started six months before the 2019, when many of my Twitter followers complained they were having trouble finding my tweets. Some even suggested I had been shadow-banned (which is “the act of blocking or partially blocking a user or their content from an online community, such that it will not be readily apparent to the user that they have been banned”). Today it is apparent that the same trolls, that would see me shadow-banned, want me completely silenced.The IT cells may have triggered the suspension, but Twitter has completed the silencing. Here’s a plain a look at the facts: For a year, the cover picture of my Twitter account has been the iconic 1936 photograph, taken by lensman August Landmesser, of a solitary man standing with his arms crossed, refusing the Nazi salute in Hitler’s presence, while all around him are frantically conforming.This is the proverbial poster of resistance: of not bowing down to majoritarianism in the face of majoritarianism.Twitter bots seem to have reported this photograph as one in support of. On October 27, Twitter blocked my account for this reason. This begs the question: Does artificial intelligence lack common sense?The account was finally restored, with the picture removed following a massive uproar online. However, the very next day, Twitter bots dug out an old tweet of mine from 2017, which featured the Hindi poem “Usko Phaansi De Do” by Gorakh Pandey. It was a tweet bywhere I had quoted the English translation of the poem, ‘Hang Him’. The poem is about the first execution in independent India by hanging of two farmers. The account was blocked again.I assumed that even though AI had missed it, some human being at Twitter would at least see the obvious point. That unfortunately did not happen, and yesterday, Twitter confirmed it will not restore my account as it was found to be violating its terms of service. The information came via email at 3 am.When I lodged an appeal with Twitter, I knew that my account would be suspended pending the appeal. Twitter norms allow you to withdraw your appeal, comply with their takedown and come back on the platform. But I refuse to delete the tweet.My case is not an aberration. Twitter has meted out similar treatment towho have faced significant amounts of restriction on their accounts.This is why I have been left with no option but to resort to seek legal remedies. I have asked fellow lawyers to examine my avenues in this matter as I believe even a lawyer, when facing a personal legal situation, can benefit from the aid and advice of independent counsel.If the matter goes to court, I have no doubt that significant precedents will be set in the matter of freedom of speech and upon the liability of large corporations, which seek to make profit from the free exercise of speech.We cannot simply allow this to be set as a precedent. If we fail to stand against this attempt to muzzle speech online, we may as well consign the freedom of thought and expression, enshrined in the Constitution, to the dustbin of human history.