Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, in a stunning allegation, claimed that the company had received “many requests” from India to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government.
The government today vehemently rebutted Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s allegation of receiving “many requests” from India to censor accounts critical of the government and reporting on farmers’ protests, as well as threats of shutting down the platform.
In a tweet, Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar blasted the comment as an “outright lie by Jack Dorsey, perhaps an attempt to brush out a dubious period of Twitter’s history”.
In an interview on the YouTube channel Breaking Points, Jack Dorsey was asked if he had faced any pressure from foreign governments.
He replied: “India, for example. India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers’ protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did; We will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit. And this is India, a democratic country.”
Jack Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, also cited governments in Turkey and Nigeria, which had restricted the platform in their nations at different points over the years before lifting the bans. Turkey, he said, acted “similarly” to India.
In a long post, Rajeev Chandrasekhar hit back at Jack Dorsey, saying on his watch, Twitter was in “repeated and continuous violation of Indian law” and that the “Dorsey Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law”. It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it. India as a sovereign nation has the right to ensure that its laws are followed by all companies operating in India. “As a matter of fact, they were in non-compliance with the law repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied. No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shut down’, Mr. Chandrasekhar said.
The government, he asserted, “was obligated to remove misinformation from the platform because it had the potential to further inflame the situation based on fake news”.
Mr. Chandrasekhar said there was “ample evidence” in the public domain about “Jack’s Twitter’s arbitrary, blatantly partisan n discriminatory conduct and misuse of its power on its platform” during that period.
“Twitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian law, but was partisan in how it was using ‘de-amplify’ and de-platforming of some arbitrarily in violation of Article 14,19 of our constitution and also assisting in weaponizing of misinformation. Our government’s policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India – compliance with laws to ensure the Internet is Safe and Trusted, Accountable,” said the minister.
The farmers ended a year of protests in November 2021 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of three controversial farm laws.
(With inputs from agencies)
