🌍 India denies claims it threatened to shut down Twitter

Hi there Intriguer. The world’s most googled query in the last 12 months was ‘Google’, followed by ‘YouTube’ and ‘weather’. So don’t feel too bad about searching ‘can I eat watermelon seeds’.

Today’s briefing is a 4 min read:

• 🇮🇳 India denies claims it threatened to shut down Twitter.

• 🇳🇬 Nigeria’s fuel subsidy is ending.

• ➕ Plus: An epic bridge in West Africa, how the papers are covering the Arab-China Business Conference, and why folks in Finland are googling ‘Iltalehti’.

1. 🇦🇿 Azerbaijan: Azerbaijan will purchase an Italian military aircraft in one of its first arms deals with a Western country. Italy linked the transaction to closer energy ties between Rome and Baku.

2. 🇷🇴 Romania: The Romanian ambassador to Kenya has been recalled after allegedly comparing African diplomats to monkeys during a meeting. The African Group within the UN pledged never to work with the ambassador following his remarks.

3. 🇻🇳 Vietnam: Several people were killed and 16 arrested after a deadly shooting at two police stations in central Vietnam. There’s long-standing discontent in the area regarding issues like land rights and autonomy from Hanoi.

4. 🇭🇳 Honduras: Honduras opened an embassy in China on Sunday, months after severing ties with Taipei and switching recognition to Beijing. President Xi Jinping says he’s open to discussing a free trade agreement with the Central American country.

5. 🇸🇾 Syria: Canada and the Netherlands are taking Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his regime to the International Criminal Court over allegations of torture and other human rights violations. Previous efforts to investigate the Syrian regime through UN channels were vetoed by Russia.

🇮🇳 India | Tech

India denies Twitter censorship allegations

Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s co-founder and former CEO, has accused India of pressuring Twitter to take down content relating to India’s mass 2020/21 farmer protests. But India denies the claims, calling them an “outright lie”.

This isn’t the first time Delhi has addressed these kinds of accusations. Earlier this year, tax officials raided the BBC’s India offices shortly after the release of a BBC documentary critical of Narendra Modi.

Critics say India is seeking to stifle free speech. But India says Twitter “behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it”; it argues online regulation is necessary to defend society against threats like misinformation.

And major markets like India have plenty of leverage over tech giants:

• 📈 900 million Indians are now online (up from 398 million in 2018)

• 💻 Around 315 million of those are already on Facebook, and

• 🐦 15 million are on Twitter (India is Twitter’s 5th largest market)

Intrigue's take: These days, regulators are looking at big tech more intently than a wedding-planner with Ed Sheeran’s back catalogue. And there are principles at play:

• People have a right to free expression

• Companies need to comply with the law, and

• Lawmakers need to tackle online crime and protect the vulnerable

But there’s tension at play here, too: tension between each principle; between those principles and profits; and between big tech and local law. And that’s all driving real debate in boardrooms and capitals everywhere.

Also worth noting:

• Between 2020 and 2023, India fell 19 places on the World Press Freedom Index to 161 out of 180 countries.

• During his interview, Jack Dorsey also accused Nigeria and Turkey of similar behaviour.

📰 How newspapers covered…

This year’s Arab-China Business Conference.

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🇳🇬 Nigeria | Geo-economics

The end of a popular fuel subsidy in Nigeria

Newly-inaugurated President Bola Tinubu acknowledged on Monday (12 June) his decision to eliminate Nigeria’s long-standing fuel subsidy from 1 July will “impose an extra burden on the masses of our people”.

The subsidy is popular among voters, and loathed by policymakers:

• millions of Nigerians have come to depend on it to make ends meet

• yet it costs ~$10B each year and has long encountered corruption

The last time a president tried to end the subsidy in 2012, he backtracked after a 120% price increase triggered weeks of deadly protests.

Intrigue’s take: Tinubu didn’t have a lot of options here: Nigeria was going deeper into debt to pay for the fuel subsidy each year. But he’s promising the long-term gains will outweigh the short-term pain for Nigerians, who are already living through 20%+ inflation:

• Tinubu says the savings will be re-invested in infrastructure, education and healthcare, and

• A new mega-refinery has potential to cut fuel costs in parallel

Also worth noting:

• Nigeria is Africa’s second largest oil producer. Fuel prices there have nearly tripled since Tinubu announced the policy on 29 May.

• Ratings agencies Fitch and Moody’s both say removing the subsidy will improve Nigeria’s outlook.

🎧 Today on Intrigue Outloud

What could former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s arrest mean for the Scottish independence movement?

➕ Extra Intrigue

Here’s what people around the world Googled over the past 12 months:

• The most searched query in 🇫🇮 Finland was ‘Iltalehti’, the name of a popular Finnish tabloid.

• The top search topic in 🇨🇳 China (where Google is restricted) was ‘翻译’ (translate).

• Google searches for ‘ChatGPT’ in 🇨🇼 Curaçao grew by 4100% over the last 12 months, the biggest increase in all query terms.

🗳️ Poll time!

🗺️ Map of the day

Ever wonder what’s with The Gambia being surrounded on three sides by Senegal? 

They were once united as the Senegambia Confederation from 1982, until disagreements led them back to independence in 1989. But cooperation continues: in 2019, The Gambia and Senegal agreed to connect the disparate parts of their territories with a bridge named Senegambia.

Yesterday’s poll: What's the best geopolitics-related movie you've seen?

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 The Constant Gardener (2005) (22%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ The Lives of Others (2006) (12%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Charlie Wilson's War (2007) (14%)

🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️ Argo (2012) (17%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ No (2012) (5%)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ The Whistleblower (2010) (2%)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ Bridge of Spies (2015) (12%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Z (1969) (3%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ Syriana (2005) (7%)

🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ ✍️ Other (write in!) (6%)

Your two cents:

• ✍️ S.M: “Official Secrets – UK film about whistleblowing during the UK/US decision to invade Iraq and the speculated presence of WMDs.”

• ✍️ L.L: “All of them. Here are 3 other top favorites of mine: Lord of War (2005); The Interpreter (2005); and The Laundromat (2019).”