As an indian, when I was younger and naive about politics I would have been outraged over this. But now I believe that all foreign media platforms should be monitored and regulated, and if possible alternate local platforms should be created and promoted. As a staunch believer in democracy, and from a country that was once colonised during the imperialist era, I understand how important it is ensure the dissemination of ideas is not controlled by foreign government - there is nothing "undemocratic" about this idea for information is power that should rightly vest in the citizens of the country that seek to exercise it.

Americans may find this idea distasteful due to their strong belief in "Free Speech". But that's because most are ignorant that the US is only comfortable with these platforms - like Wikimedia Foundation, WhatsApp, Facebook, Reddit, Youtube, HN etc. - only because they are US / western owned platform which they strongly control and influence. But when it comes to non-western platforms, like Russia Today ( https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10575961/Russia-Tod... ) or TikTok, where they face difficulty in controlling the dissemination of alternate political views, Americans who speak of the virtues of democracy and free speech suddenly behave just like the Russians and Chinese.

What most westerners don't realise is how we, the citizens of the "Global South", are censored on these platform for our alternate political views that clash with American / western political ideas (even on democracy).

Here's a great example of this - Politics.SE is a Stack Exchange to seek clarifications on Politics, academically. A question there asked "What could Russia hope to gain by continuing their war against Ukraine?" ( https://politics.stackexchange.com/q/83976/ ). A Russian user answered this question, and offered a very Russian political perspective. The answer was promptly deleted by a moderator with the message:

> This answer contains a lot of misinformation. In fact, Russia is at war with Ukraine but not with NATO or other countries in the West. Western support for Ukraine is allowed per article 51 of the UN Charter because Ukraine was the victim of an armed attack by Russia (who started the war by invading the sovereign nation of Ukraine). This answer violates the code of conduct by peddling a counterfactual Russian narrative that violates the code of conduct. ( https://imgur.com/a/CUkibp7 )

Note the last line - This answer violates the code of conduct by peddling a counterfactual Russian narrative that violates the code of conduct ... The question was about Russia, and a Russian shared the political view prevalent in his country about the issue (i.e. that they believe they are fighting NATO, not Ukraine who is a proxy). But the relevant answer was promptly censored because all Russian political perspective are "fake" and "obviously wrong" and thus violate the "code of conduct" of the plaform. Apparently this platform believes Russian political views are too dangerous even to study it academically! It's the same with the current ongoing Palestine vs Israel conflict - all views that clash with American political perspective there are downvoted or harassed or deleted.

My point is that this news shouldn't be surprising. Tomorrow other countries, even democratic ones too, will take similar steps. They will be fools not to do so.