STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Let's go next to India, where telling a joke can be dangerous if it's about the prime minister, Narendra Modi. Free speech advocates say the government has tried to crack down on people with a sense of humor. Some have been taken to court. Some have been doxed online. Others received death threats. Now, as criticism grows of Modi's response to the war, NPR's Omkar Khandekar reports that censors want to take down memes in which the Indian leader is the punch line.
OMKAR KHANDEKAR, BYLINE: In late February, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Israel to meet with his counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. During the two-day visit, Modi was generous with his signature hugs and laughs, and the Israeli prime minister effusive with praise.
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PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: This is a bond of real friendship.
PRIME MINISTER NARENDRA MODI: (Laughter).
NETANYAHU: Great friend. My great friend.
KHANDEKAR: Days after Modi's visit, Israel and the U.S. launched a war on Iran. India appeared to be caught off guard. Its currency and stock market tumbled. People scrambled for cooking gas and fuel after Iran restricted the movement of ships in the Strait of Hormuz. Restaurants and factories began shuttering, and the memes followed. Instagram user Namaskaar (ph) turned a hymn into a song, asking Modi to use his friendship with Netanyahu to get cooking gas to India.
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UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing in non-English language).
KHANDEKAR: "Fill up my gas cylinders," the song goes. "I won't go back home empty-handed." Comedian Pulkit Mani made a parody of the Indian prime minister's exuberance while meeting world leaders.
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PULKIT MANI: My friend (laughter).
KHANDEKAR: Instagram has now blocked Mani's original post, citing a government order. One researcher says that Mani is among the dozens who have received takedown notices from Meta and X since the war began. NPR contacted both social media companies, but neither of them responded to our questions.
PRATEEK WAGHRE: It's mainly stuff that's critical of the Indian government.
KHANDEKAR: That's Prateek Waghre, an internet policy researcher with Tech Global Institute. He says the orders came from both the police and the federal ministry. Waghre says the recent spurt of takedown orders stands out because of their speed and their targets. They include satirists with hundreds of thousands of followers, independent journalists and even one opposition legislator. Those speedy takedown orders were possible because last year, India reduced the deadline for social media sites to comply with its blocking orders from 36 hours to just three. And for the most part, social media companies complied.
AKASH KARMAKAR: It's honestly the most aggressive timeline for any jurisdiction in the world.
KHANDEKAR: That's Akash Karmakar, a New Delhi-based lawyer who specializes in technology law. He says users can go to the courts to stop this, but...
KARMAKAR: The chances of you being able to mention a matter before a high court in three hours is 0.00%.
KHANDEKAR: That's what happened to Prateek Sharma. In March, X emailed him in the middle of the night, saying that the Indian authorities had asked them to block his popular satire account, Dr Nimo Yadav. The government counsel later told a high court that Sharma's posts portrayed Modi in bad taste, like when he wrote, elect a clown, expect a circus.
Analysts say such irreverence around Modi is a response to the relentless myth-building by his supporters that he's a saint, a strongman, who works 18 hours a day to turn India into a superpower. Some satirists are taking on the pliant traditional broadcast media too, like YouTuber Purav Jha, who turned the popular Bollywood song "Aal Izz Well" into a parody called "All Izz Hell."
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PURAV JHA: (Singing) News channel (non-English language spoken). Influencer (non-English language spoken). All is hell.
KHANDEKAR: It goes, "TV news is a farce. Content creators are the ones doing the job of journalists these days."
Meanwhile, Prateek Sharma, the satirist, has challenged his account blocking in the Delhi High Court. He says the suspension of his account in India will not deter him.
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PRATEEK SHARMA: Within my rights, (non-English language spoken).
KHANDEKAR: He says he will continue doing what he did within his rights because, he says, the jokes must continue.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing) Can you because you spoke the truth.
KHANDEKAR: Omkar Khandekar, NPR News, Mumbai.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Singing) Block you. Ban you. Block you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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