Twitter has blocked a tweet from "The CJ Werleman Show" at the Indian government's request, according to an order publicly disclosed on the Lumen database viewed by MediaNama. The tweet in question, posted in June, contained a link to Werleman's YouTube video on how the Indian police allegedly support violent hardline Hindu attacks on Muslims. Click here to view screenshots of the blocked tweet and the publicly available follow-up to it. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) sent Twitter the blocking request on August 5th under provisions of the Information and Technology Act, 2000 (IT Act). The order available on the Lumen Database does not specify which provisions it violated, or the reasons for the blocking. A tweet from Entrackr journalist Aroon Deep in the evening yesterday indicated that the video was still available on YouTube. Now, both the video and the channel for "The CJ Werleman Show" are unavailable in India, as of publishing this report. Click here for links to the blocked video and channel. A journalist reportedly exposing "injustices against Muslim communities throughout the world," Werleman's personal Twitter account has been blocked in India since June this year. An official quoted by PTI said Werleman's blocking was spurred by "anti-India propaganda". Why it matters: The Indian government often requests that tweets or entire user accounts be blocked on various grounds, including security and public order. However, the lack of transparency in doing so has raised concerns over the government's broad use of its blocking powers, with potentially chilling effects on free speech. What…
