Jack Dorsey claims Twitter faced pressure during Indian farmers’ protest; Govt terms it ‘outright lie’; Opp demands answers

New Delhi: Congress alleges there cannot be bigger proof of the “weakening of democracy” in the country

BY | Tuesday, 13 June, 2023

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey in sensational allegations claimed the Indian government threatened to shut Twitter down unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts during farmers’ protest, an accusation Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed as an “outright lie”.

In an interview, Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, claimed that the Indian government “pressured” the company with threats of a shutdown and raids on employees if it did not comply with requests to take down posts and restrict accounts that were critical of the government over the protest by farmers against new agri laws in 2020 and 2021.

Rubbishing the claims, the Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted that Dorsey’s Twitter regime “had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law”.

“No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shutdown’,” Chandrasekhar said. “This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history.”

In the longish post, he then went on to cite what the government saw as non-compliance with the local laws governing social media platforms.

“Facts and truth – @twitter under Dorsey and his team were in repeated in continuous violations of India law. 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,” he said. “It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it.”

Opposition parties quickly latched on to Dorsey’s comments to attack the government.

Congress said when farmers were protesting, the “coward dictator sitting in Delhi was trying to suppress this news.”

“Be aware, 733 farmers were martyred in this movement and the dictator was engaged in polishing his image on their dead bodies,” it tweeted.

Rajya Sabha MP and leader of Shiv Sena-UBT Priyanka Chaturvedi replying to Chandrasekhar’s tweet, said the law Twitter broke was to “allow hate speech and rabid BJP agenda.”

India as a sovereign nation, Chandrasekhar said, has the right to ensure that its laws are followed by all companies operating in India.

“During the protests in January 2021, there was a lot of misinformation and even reports of genocide which were definitely fake.

“GoI was obligated to remove misinformation from the platform because it had the potential to further inflame the situation based on fake news,” he said without giving details.

The minister charged Twitter with not complying with requests to take down tweets spreading misinformation.

“Such was the level of partisan behaviour on Twitter under Jack regime, that they had a problem removing misinformation from the platform in India, when they did it themselves when similar events took place in the USA,” he said.

“There is ample evidence now in public domain abt Jacks twitter’s arbitrary, blatantly partisan n discriminatory conduct and misuse of its power on its platform during that period,” he said.

Twitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian laws but was partisan in how it was using “deamplify” and deplatforming of some arbitrarily in violation of the constitution and also assisting in weaponising of misinformation, he said.

“To set the record straight, no one was raided or sent to jail. Our focus was only on ensuring the compliance of Indian laws,” Chandrasekhar said. “Our govts policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India – compliance with laws to ensure the Internet is Safe and Trusted, Accountable”.

Dorsey made the sensational allegation in an interview with the YouTube news show Breaking Points on Monday.

“It manifested in ways such as: ‘We will shut Twitter down in India’, which is a very large market for us; ‘we will raid the homes of your employees’, which they did; And this is India, a democratic country,” he said talking about pressure Twitter under him faced from the Indian government.

The Indian government has repeatedly denied engaging in online censorship.

“Twitter under Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of Indian law. Say MoS IT. Lol! Yeah the law they broke was to allow hate speech and rabid BJP agenda. But there was no crackdown or compliance issues since it supported their agenda. The minute people and opposition started to fight back using the platform, the government started to crackdown! So please, spare this little sermon,” Chaturvedi tweeted.

She went on to state that Elon Musk, the new owner of Twitter, has “on record spoken about GoI’s multiple requests to take down content/ suspend accounts that goes against his own belief regarding absolute FoS . They comply, since GoI.”

“The BJP and the government tried to crush the farmers’ protest, They tried to defame the movement, They called farmers terrorists, They called farmers anti-national, They lathi-charged the farmers, They let farmers die,

“They tried to silence the opposition in parliament, They tried to arm-twist social media platforms to mute the voices of those supporting the farmers… but despite their might, despite their power, the farmers humbled their arrogance and forced the government to withdraw the farmers act. Indian democracy or rule of Modiocracy?,” she added.

The Congress also demanded answers from the Modi government over the issue and alleged that there cannot be bigger proof of the “weakening of democracy” in the country by targeting institutions.

“We demand that the government stops suppressing social media, stops suppressing, coaxing large sections of media into submission,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said at a press conference here.

“Opposition voices are regularly being suppressed by the government,” she alleged.

Shrinate said Twitter had banned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s account after “pressure” from the government and alleged that the “truth” has come out after Dorsey’s claim.

“The prime minister is afraid because crores have been spent to build his image and that gets demolished when such truth comes out,” she said, and added that Dorsey would not benefit anyway by speaking out now.

“There cannot be bigger proof of the weakening of democracy in the country by targeting institutions. This is the truth of this government,” Shrinate claimed.

Taking to Twitter, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, “The Modi Government forced Twitter to shut down accounts of Farmers and Farmer’s movement, shut down accounts of journalists critical of Government, or Twitter and its employees would be raided.”

“This is what Twitter Co Founder and Ex CEO Jack Dorsey admits in a TV interview. Will Modi Government answer,” he asked.

Surjewala also shared a clip from the interview in which Dorsey levelled the allegation.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, “During the farmers agitation the cowardly BJP government threatened to shut down Twitter & raid the homes of their employees.”

Shrinate also said that Twitter has become a platform for expressing public opinion, and claimed that Dorsey has made it very clear that during the farmers’ agitation, the Modi government “pressurised” the company to stop such content or face raids.

“Twitter was raided and the idea was to suppress the agitation and send out a message,” she claimed.

Shrinate claimed that recently a Union minister threatened a journalist in Amethi who then lost his job within hours.

“This has to stop. Intimidation of media, journalists and social media platforms has to immediately stop,” she said.

Rakesh Tikait, Farmer leader & National spokesperson of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU), asked, “if this is the condition of the international media, then what will be the condition of the country’s news agency.”

“Pen and camera are guarded by guns,” he added on Twitter.

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