Free speech

NEW DELHI — On television, Lata and Kabir are clandestine lovers thwarted by faith and history. She is Hindu and he a Muslim in India in the early 1950s, in the wake of bloody sectarian clashes that echo through the country to this day. At one point, in a secluded spot with a Hindu temple as the backdrop, the two young college students share a furtive but passionate kiss. In the real world, that onscreen kiss has embroiled Netflix, the American streaming service, in the increasingly bitter and religiously charged world of Indian politics. Members of the Hindu nationalist party that controls India’s central government have asked the authorities to investigate Netflix, calling the scene in the television series “A Suitable Boy” offensive to their beliefs. They have also called on Indians to boycott the streaming service. Netflix is not likely to face serious legal trouble, experts say. But the campaign puts pressure on the streaming service at a time when the government is … [Read more...] about With a Kiss, Netflix Gets Tangled in India’s Religious Tensions

Before anyone outside her hometown knew her name, Disha Ravi spent four years raising awareness among young people in Bangalore about the effects of climate change. Now the 21-year-old activist is jailed in New Delhi. The allegation: She distributed a “tool kit” in the form of a Google Doc containing talking points and contact information for influential groups to drum up support for farmers who have been protesting against the Indian government for months. The document — which the police say she shared with Greta Thunberg, the 18-year-old Swedish climate activist — resembles the kind that grass-roots organizations around the world have used for years to campaign for their causes. But Ms. Ravi, the police contend, was using it to “spread disaffection against the Indian State.” The arrest, the latest in a series of broader crackdown on activists, has triggered anger and disbelief among opposition politicians, student groups and lawyers, who say the government is using its … [Read more...] about Climate Activist Jailed in India as Government Clamps Down on Dissent

Video platform Vimeo has censored Dead Name — a documentary about parents struggling to protect their children from life-altering medical interventions on their gender — over so-called “hateful conduct.” “The film is subtly explosive but I can tell you unequivocally there is no hate speech, there is nothing hateful,” filmmaker Taylor Reece told the Daily Signal. “All these people talk about is how much they want to protect their children.” The filmmaker added that transgender activists had targeted Vimeo, calling on the video platform to ban the documentary. Reece said Dead Name was up for only 34 days before it was removed. Vimeo confirmed to the Daily Signal that it did, in fact, remove the documentary, citing “discriminatory” and “hateful content.” “We can confirm that Vimeo removed the video in question for violating our Terms of Service prohibiting discriminatory or hateful content,” the video platform said. “We strive to enforce these policies objectively and … [Read more...] about Vimeo Censors Documentary About Parents Protecting Children from ‘Transgender’ Surgeries as ‘Hateful Conduct’

First, the accountant and the freelance writer were taken away. Then, the former tutor with a degree in English literature. And several days later, the police came for the editor at the Beijing publishing house. The four detained women were friends. They spent their free time in China’s capital as many curious, creative-minded young people did: hosting book clubs, watching movies, discussing social issues like feminism and L.G.B.T.Q. rights over barbecue. When protests against coronavirus restrictions broke out in November across China , including in Beijing, they attended. And now, they are among the first people known to have been formally arrested in connection with those protests. China is waging a campaign of intimidation against people who joined the demonstrations, which were the boldest challenge to the Communist Party’s rule in decades and an embarrassing affront to its leader, Xi Jinping. The party seems determined to warn off anyone who may have been emboldened by … [Read more...] about In China’s Crackdown on Protesters, a Familiar Effort to Blame Foreign Powers

The Indian authorities on Monday arrested the co-founder of a fact-checking website, reigniting concerns about deteriorating journalistic freedoms in the world’s largest democracy. The journalist, Mohammed Zubair, was held on charges of hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between religious groups, the New Delhi police said. The arrest came after an anonymous Twitter user complained that Mr. Zubair, a Muslim, had been disrespectful of a Hindu god in a tweet from 2018. The detention of Mr. Zubair, journalists and activists said, is part of a broad crackdown on critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party’s Hindu nationalist worldview. It was even more jarring, they said, because Mr. Modi had just joined leaders of the Group of 7 countries in Germany in committing to free and independent news media. “This is extremely disturbing because Zubair and his website Alt News have done some exemplary work over the past years in identifying fake news and countering … [Read more...] about Arrest of Journalist in India Adds to Press Freedom Concerns

BEIJING — In their widening campaign against online “rumormongers” and other putative purveyors of social disorder, Chinese authorities have netted influential rights activists, freelance anticorruption sleuths and even a billionaire entrepreneur who championed the rights of poor migrants. Many of those detained in recent weeks remain in police custody. But the enforcers of Internet propriety, it seems, were not prepared for the online outrage stirred up by the arrest last week of a 16-year-old boy who had publicly questioned investigators over the mysterious death of a karaoke club manager in China’s northwest Gansu Province. On Monday, the police in Zhangjiachuan Hui Autonomous County apparently bowed to public pressure and released Yang Zhong, a middle school student who was among the first people to be charged under new regulations that criminalize the spreading of online rumors with up to three years in jail. The authorities contend the boy had simply confessed to his crimes … [Read more...] about China’s Crackdown Prompts Outrage Over Boy’s Arrest