An Indian judge’s ruling has set back free speech on the internet by ordering news agency Reuters to remove global web access to a November 2023 cybersecurity investigation, according to an in-depth report by POLITICO Magazine’s Michael Schaffer, a senior editor and columnist.
The Reuters report, “How an Indian Startup Hacked the World,” analyzed how an India-based company, Appin, allegedly turned into a mercenary hacking firm that targeted political clients, military officials and businesspeople. Appin and co-founder Rabat Khare have denied the allegations, according to POLITICO.
Within three weeks of publishing the report, Reuters removed the article from its websites around the globe to comply with the preliminary court order, Schaffer wrote, and the story was also removed from online circulation in other outlets, like Wired and Lawfare, that had aggregated the report.
The effect of the judge’s ruling is “a disturbing turn of events that couldn’t have happened in the pre-internet era, when publishing – and censorship – were largely local affairs,” Schaffer wrote.
Read Michael Schaffer’s full article in POLITICO Magazine on how this court ruling affects Reuters and its readers in the U.S. and around the world.