FREE speech advocates have warned that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s crackdown on critical journalists and social media will intensify if courts approve a petition calling for tougher regulation.

The Supreme Court asked Mr Modi’s government and Twitter for their responses to the petition today. 

Petitioner Vinit Goenka, a member of Mr Modi’s Hindu chauvinist BJP party, argues that fake Twitter and Facebook accounts are being used to “tarnish the image” of the Indian government.

Indian authorities have asked Twitter to close hundreds of accounts for content they consider “provocative” relating to the massive farmers’ protests against laws ending guaranteed crop prices and opening the agricultural sector to transnational agribusiness giants.

Twitter has shut down some of the accounts, including those of respected media outlets such as the investigative journalism site Caravan, but has refused to comply with all requests.

The New Delhi Television news channel said the government had drawn up draft rules to regulate social media, streaming and digital news content, which will include a code of ethics and a mechanism to report inappropriate content and ask for its removal. The proposed rules have not been made public.

But Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday that social media sites would face “strict action” if they are “misused to spread fake news and fuel violence.”

But India’s farmers’ movement has accused the government of spreading fake news with its unsubstantiated accusations that the mass protests are being manipulated by foreign infiltrators.

“Those who oppose the farm laws are those who uphold the prosperity of Indian agriculture and our farmers,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist website People’s Democracy argued, while “those who propagate and support the farm laws are those who facilitate the loot of Indian agriculture, our produce and our markets for predatory profit maximisation by corporates.”

Mr Modi’s attacks on free speech have led to the arrests of multiple journalists and raids on independent media outlets such as the Newsclick website.

The latter prompted Britain’s National Union of Journalists general secretary Michelle Stanistreet to denounce the way “many Indian journalists [are] being targeted and intimidated for reporting on the farmers’ protest.”