Singaporean journalist and activist Kirsten Han uses Twitter to talk about things the Singaporean government would prefer to keep secret. Han does not mince his words: his tweets are about the rights of migrant workers, about racism, which the government denies the existence, but also, and above all, about the hundreds of executions of traffickers or non-violent drug users.
For her work, Han has been condemned by members of parliament and had run-ins with the police, which she told her 29,000 followers about.
In June, Han was investigated under Singapore’s Public Order Act for organizing a four-person silent protest against the death penalty. She then had to give access to her Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Police argued that Han’s social media posts, including Twitter, warrant an investigation, which is still ongoing.
fear of trolls
Han has no plans to stop using Twitter, but she might change the way she uses it, as the social network’s new owner, Elon Musk, is expected to shake up the rules of how it works.
So, from this week [début novembre]Musk plans to scrap Twitter’s identity authentication system, offering the blue tick, hitherto reserved for high-profile users, to anyone willing to pay $8 a month.
Han fears that in the future internet trolls will impersonate her and confuse her followers. And, basically, she has the impression that Musk does not measure all the responsibility that now falls to him. She emphasizes:
“He’s a businessman. He does not seem to know well the functioning of this type of platforms and the responsibilities that are theirs, which is quite worrying”.
Han isn’t the only one worried. Across Asia, activists, journalists, Twitter users interested in human rights and social justice issues are concerned about the changes brought about by the takeover of this social network by the most rich in the world.
Window on the outside and place of debate
Window on the outside and the debated expr