Earlier last night, Jack Dorsey, ex-CEO of Twitter and one of its founders claimed in an interview that the Government of India had threatened to take action against Twitter, and its staff in India, if it did not suppress tweets about the farmer’s protest and tweets from certain opposition leaders and journalists.
Now, Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has launched a scathing attack on Dorsey, not only claiming that he is lying but also that Dorsey doesn’t respect the sovereignty of India’s laws.
‘Ordered To Suppress Farmer Protest Tweets’
Jack Dorsey claimed that the company had received “many requests” from India to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government. While speaking to the YouTube channel Breaking Points, Dorsey made a couple of alarming allegations.
Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO alleges that during the farmer protest Indian govt pressurized us(Twitter) and said we will shut down Twitter in India, raid the homes of your employees if you don’t listen to us. pic.twitter.com/tnNYta5G20
— Megh Updates 🚨™ (@MeghUpdates) June 12, 2023
When questioned about whether he experienced any influence from foreign governments, Dorsey, who resigned from Twitter’s board in the previous year, responded that he did. He cited India as an example, mentioning that the country made numerous demands related to the farmers’ protests and specific journalists who were critical of the government.
He said, “India for example, India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which 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.”
Outright Lies, Claims Union IT Minister
In the morning after the interview premiered, Union IT minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar called out the former CEO of Twitter, accusing him of lying and “trying to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter’s history.”
This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history
Facts and truth@twitter undr Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023
Minister Chandrasekhar explained that Twitter, under the leadership of Jack Dorsey and his team, was found to be in repeated and continuous violations of Indian law. Between 2020 and 2022, they failed to comply with the law multiple times, and only in June 2022 did they eventually adhere to the requirements. It is important to note that despite these violations, no one was imprisoned, and Twitter was not shut down entirely.
He also added that Dorsey’s regime at Twitter displayed a reluctance to acknowledge and respect the sovereignty of Indian law. They seemed to disregard the applicability of Indian laws to their operations within the country. However, as a sovereign nation, India has the right to ensure that all companies operating within its borders comply with its laws.
Coming to the protests, Minister Chandrasekhar explained that during the protests in January 2021, there was a significant amount of misinformation circulating, including false reports of genocide. The Indian government had the responsibility to address this misinformation on the platform as it had the potential to worsen the situation based on false news.
Twitter, under Dorsey’s leadership, faced criticism for its partisan behaviour as it struggled to remove misinformation from the platform in India, despite taking action against similar events in the United States.
Jack’s Twitter and its discriminatory conduct
Minister Chandrasekhar further said, “To set the record straight, no one was raided or sent to jail. Our focus was only on ensuring compliance of Indian laws. There is ample evidence now 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.”
He further claimed, that Twitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian law, but was partisan in how it was deamplify and deplatform certain people and content arbitrarily in violation of Art 14, 19 of our constitution and also assisting in weaponising misinformation.
“Our govt’s policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India – compliance with laws to ensure that the Internet is Safe & Trusted, Accountable,” he added.
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