A recent Washington Post article detailing a whistle-blower complaint on Twitter’s lack of protection for user data and a number of breachers, alleges that the Indian government forced Twitter to put one of its agents on the payroll, with access to user data at a time of large-scale protests across the country.

In our latest Himal Twitter Spaces session, recorded on 22 September, Apar Gupta speaks to Hija Kamran and ‪Harsha Man Maharjan to understand the interaction between social media platforms and governments in Southasia and how increasing social media use has impacted society.

Moderator:

Apar Gupta - Lawyer, Co-founder and Executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF). Based in India.

Speakers:

Hija Kamran - Digital rights advocate based in Pakistan. Kamran has worked on key internet governance and privacy issues in the country.

‪Harsha Man Maharjan - Senior researcher at Martin Chautari. Maharjan writes for various publications on media practices, media policy and media history. Based in Nepal.

Select excerpts from the transcript: