Union Information and Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday strongly refuted former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s claim that the social media platform came under pressure from the Indian government during the farmers’ protest.
Taking to Twitter to deny Dorsey’s charge, Chandrasekhar said, “This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history (sic).”
Dorsey has claimed that Twitter had received “many requests” from Indian authorities to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government. He further said that Indian authorities threatened to shut down Twitter’s offices in the country if it did not comply with its requests.
“It manifested in ways that … [they said] we will raid the homes of their employees, which they did; we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit,” he said during an interview with YouTube channel Breaking Points.
Setting the record straight, Chandrasekhar said no one from Twitter was raided or sent to jail, nor was the site shut down in the country. Any action taken against Twitter and its executives was because the platform had been in violation of government regulations.
“Dorseys 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 (sic),” the IT minister said.
Chandrasekhar further said that any takedown notices sent to Twitter during the farmers’ protest were in response to misinformation and fake news circulating on the platform.
He accused Twitter under Jack Dorsey of “partisan behaviour” and that its co-founder’s remarks against the Indian government were an “attempt to brush out” a “dubious period” of the site’s history.
Several opposition leaders latched on to Dorsey’s statements and attacked the Centre for muzzling voices and cracking down on dissent. Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV shared excerpts from the interview on Twitter with the caption: “Mother of Democracy – Unfiltered.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi alleged that the Modi government “tried to silence the Opposition” and “arm-twist social media platforms to mute the voices of those supporting the farmers”.
In February 2021, the government asked Twitter to take down hundreds of accounts that criticised the Centre over its handling of the large-scale farmers’ protests that began in November 2020. The social media platform initially refused, but complied in due course.
The Centre had also repeatedly criticised Twitter for not fully complying with the new Information Technology rules that came into force in May 2021.
