Twitter's Ability To Uphold Free Speech In India Will Take A Hit, Warns Company's Former India News Chief

Ever since Elon Musk, the world's richest man, took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal, he has made a slew of changes in the social media company. Over 90% of the company's staff in India, mostly from the engineering and product teams, have been fired in the past few days. This will have a drastic impact on the company's functioning in India, according to Raheel Khursheed, a former top executive in Twitter India's operations.  
 
Having served as Head of News at Twitter INSEA (India and South East Asia) from 2014 to 2018, Khursheed had witnessed the increasing role Twitter has played in news dissemination in India. Back then, Twitter India even faced backlash from India's right-wing netizens for appointing Khursheed, formerly a Kashmiri journalist, in a leading position. Now, Khursheed is sceptical of how Twitter under Musk will navigate the political challenges that the Indian cyberspace can present.  
 
In an exclusive interview with Outlook Business, Khursheed warns that Twitter's ability to uphold free speech in India will take a hit under Elon Musk. On free speech regulation in India, he says, "It costs lot of money for companies to challenge arbitrary governmentt orders which we have seen in the last couple of years. This takes a lot of legal firepower and I don't think Musk will be in any mood to spend money in that direction."
 
In the past, Twitter has gotten into trouble with the Indian government multiple times. In June this year, the social media giant filed a petition with Karnataka High Court against several government orders that had asked them to take down content from its platform. "As far as government regulation is concerned, when it comes to these social platforms, the government needs to put together frameworks to ensure users' interests are protected. But more often than not, the government tends to put in regulations that favour themselves and not the users," Khursheed says.

There are also concerns among twitter users that Musk, the self-proclaimed champion of free speech, will not be interested in keeping Twitter politically neutral.  Regarding this, the former journalist says, "No platforms are politically neutral. Twitter has a fairly nuanced position on free speech but it is not perfect. What we should be asking for is what users do with the platform, it needs to be recast as equal speech and not free speech. Everyone should have equal access to these platforms but not to incite violence or harm."
 
Terming the Musk-led Twitter a private platform that is dissociated from the market, Khursheed opines that there could be advantages to this one-man-show model. "Speed and innovation go hand in hand. Within the first two weeks we have seen how rapidly he has executed things. He can now tweak the model the way he wants to, although one can argue the thoughtlessness to the model so far," says Khursheed. He adds that Musk is very 'America-centric' and that products and features that Indian users need will not be a top priority for the billionaire.  

The former Twitter India employee is also disheartened at the recent mass layoffs. He calls the layoffs 'thoughtless' and adds, "Nearly 90% of people have been laid off in Twitter India. These are real people with real stories. Twitter's layoffs seem more out of way of company culture." Khursheed feels that Twitter's culture of openness that he had experienced in the past would not find space under the new CEO.  

However, despite the mass layoffs in Twitter India, it is unlikely that Musk will do something that can jeopardise the Indian markets. According to data from earlier this year, India contributes most to Twitter's user base after the US and Japan. Khursheed sums up, "Musk has multiple business interests in India. He may want to unlock all that potential."  

Under the new so-called Chief Twit, quick, drastic changes seem to be the norm for the platform. How these changes will ultimately affect Twitter's market share in India remains to be seen.