you ve made can t stand? i haven t yet come to that. we aren t really getting direct communication from the government. we are a small, independent outlet. we do our work quite independently. i can t say the same for large media outlets in india. they may be hearing from the government more often, but no, we are not. having said that, there s always a sword hanging over all of us. as i said, if the government can overnight invoke emergency powers and put a bbc documentary out of circulation, knowing well that this would invite global attention, even criticism, then it s obviously significantly easier for it to censor the work of indian journalists. well, thank you very much indeed forjoining us. those of you listening on iplayer, the documentary is called india the modi question, thanks to rishi iyengar, supriya sharma and ramanjit singh chima. now, next on the media show, we re going to talk about spotify. it s the biggest music streamer in the world. and a few years back, you might r
reach and twitter s small size but outsized influence in the country, it has frequently become a target, and social media companies have frequently become a target of this government. well, rishi, you re talking about twitter. twitter has confirmed to the bbc that it has blocked 50 tweets based on a request by india s ministry of information and broadcasting. a youtube spokesperson said the video had been blocked from appearing by the bbc, due to a copyright claim, and a bbc spokesperson says, as is standard practice, we follow procedure to have illegal uploads of any bbc content removed. that doesn t necessarily, though, contradict that statement from a government adviser that the government has also requested certain clips are removed from youtube. rishi, you re staying with us. let s bring in supriya sharma, editor of the indian news website scroll and ramanjit singh chima, asia policy director at the digital rights organisation access now.
and i think the big shift, i would say, is that twitter in the past, as i mentioned earlier, they actually sued the indian government last year of these rules, twitter has been at the forefront of standing up for free expression, even against governments that might threaten that free expression. and under elon musk, when he took over, he has sort of styled himself as a free speech absolutist. but he s also said that he will not interfere with local the laws of the land. and isn t that a point, and ramanjit singh chima, from access now, let s bring you in on this particularly because you used to work for google in a relation in a job where you interacted with with the government, isn t it just that it literally comes with the territory that if you re big tech and you re operating in one country or another, you may have to compromise your principles to fit in with whatever the laws of that particular country are? i think what it also requires
and, so, given social media s reach and twitter s small size but outsized influence in the country, it has frequently become a target, and social media companies have frequently become a target of this government. well, rishi, you re talking about twitter. twitter has confirmed to the bbc that it has blocked 50 tweets based on a request by india s ministry of information and broadcasting. a youtube spokesperson said the video had been blocked from appearing by the bbc, due to a copyright claim, and a bbc spokesperson says, as is standard practice, we follow procedure to have illegal uploads of any bbc content removed. that doesn t necessarily, though, contradict that statement from a government adviser that the government has also requested certain clips are removed from youtube. rishi, you re staying with us. let s bring in supriya sharma, editor of the indian news website scroll and ramanjit singh chima, asia policy director at the digital rights organisation access now. raman, in
having said that, there s always a sword hanging over all of us. as i said, if the government can overnight invoke emergency powers and put a bbc documentary out of circulation, knowing well that this would invite global attention, even criticism, then it s obviously significantly easier for it to censor the work of indian journalists. well, thank you very much indeed forjoining us. those of you listening on iplayer, the documentary is called india: the modi question, thanks to rishi iyengar, supriya sharma and ramanjit singh chima. now, next on the media show, we re going to talk about spotify. it s the biggest music streamer in the world. and a few years back, you might remember it made a major move into podcasts. the idea was to become the netflix of audio, and it s an idea that s certainly evolving. let me just run you through a few developments. spotify has reduced its workforce by 6%. the person in charge of its podcast strategy left recently. bloomberg has been speaking to insid