Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s allegations against the central government, alleging censor of Twitter accounts supporting the farmer’s protest, among other issues, has triggered a major political war between the ruling government and the opposition parties.
During an interview to a Youtube channel, Dorsey claimed that there was “significant pressure” from the Indian government on Twitter to clamp down on posts critical of the government during the 2021 farmer’s protest.
“India is a country that had many requests of us around the farmers’ protest, around particular journalists that were critical of the government and 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; ‘we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit’. And this is India, a democratic country,” Dorsey said in a statement.
This is an outright lie by Jack Dorsey: Rajeev Chandrashekhar
Ridiculing the claims, Union Minister for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrashekhar claimed Twitter under Dorsey and his team were engaged in repeated violations of Indian law from 2020 to 2022 and it was not until June 2022 that they finally abided by law.
Taking to Twitter, the Union Minister posted: “This is an outright lie by Jack, perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter’s history.” The minister said that India as a sovereign nation state has the right to make sure all companies comply with Indian laws.
“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 wrote in his tweet.
No one from Twitter was sent to jail, and the platform was not shut down, stated Chandrasekhar.
He also accused Jack Dorsey of arbitrary and discriminatory conduct as well as misuse of power on its platform.
Also Read: ‘Outright Lie’: Centre slams Jack Dorsey’s claim that India threatened to shut down Twitter
Nothing surprising about Jack Dorsey’s claims: Manish Tewari
Congress MP Manish Tewari condemned the central government and BJP-ruled state governments over allegations that the Indian government requested taking down certain journalists’ accounts. Accusing the Centre of being authoritarian, Tewari said there was nothing surprising about Dorsey’s claims.
“What Jack Dorsey has said is not surprising at all. In the past 9 years, after 2014, there has been a systematic erosion of the freedom of speech & expression and civil liberties in the country. Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not confined to the Central Govt alone. Certain state governments also have been equally draconian & authoritarian in the manner in which they seek to stifle dissent and try & proscribe alternative voices..,” Tewari said.
Congress will raise issue across the country: KC Venugopal
Congress general Secretary KC Venugopal slammed the Centre for pressurising Twitter to repress the voice of the Opposition during the period of the farmers’ protest.
Speaking to the reporters, he said, “…The statement of the ex-CEO of Twitter is alarming & shocking for all of us. The entire Govt machinery is pressurising the Twitter CEO to suppress & shut the Opposition’s voice. That is why they banned Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account. Where is the freedom of expression, freedom of media?…Not only in Parliament, but we will also raise this issue throughout the country.”
Twitter didn’t comply with Indian laws: RS Prasad
BJP leader and former IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad accused Jack Dorsey of making false claims against the BJP-ruled Centre. He claimed there was an increase in the number of social media activities from unverified accounts outside India supporting terrorism in India.
“At that time, Twitter didn’t comply with Indian laws. It is clear that all social media platforms are respected in India but they have to abide by the law of the land,” Prasad said.
Democracy being strangled behind curtains: Sanjay Raut
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Tuesday criticised the Centre for threatening and strangulating democracy in India. “I have seen how the democracy of the country and freedom are under threat and how democracy is being strangulated behind the curtain. This makes it clear,” he said.
Rakesh Tikait backs Jack Dorsey’s claims
Farmer leader and BKU member Rakesh Tikait accused the central government of making attempts to curb the reach of the farmers’ protest.
Supporting Jack Dorsey’s claim, he said, “We had information that the kind of reach on Facebook and Twitter that was expected on farmers’ protest, was not coming. They used to try to stop it at their level. The Head (former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey) has said this clearly now. But such companies don’t come under anyone’s pressure. Govt of India must have made such attempts…What he said is correct”
Murder of Democracy: Supriya Shrinate
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate termed the allegations levelled by Dorsey as a “murder of democracy” in the “mother of democracy”. Shrinate termed Prime minister Narendra Modi as an “authoritative” figure who remained silent while over 700 lost their lives.
“When farmers were agitating at the Delhi border for more than a year, braving winter, summer, and rain, they were being called ‘mawali, Khalistani, Pakistani & terrorists,’ and platforms like Twitter were being told that if they show farmers, they would be shut down in India and raided,”said Supriya Shrinate referring to the the allegations.
A blatant lie: Anurag Thakur
Sports minister Anurag Thakur took a dig at the former Twitter-CEO for levelling false accusations against the Modi government and said he doubts foul play as elections approach in India.
“What was said is a blatant lie. Jack Dorsey woke up after years of sleep & wants to cover up his misdeeds. When Twitter was bought by another person, it was revealed in ‘Twitter Files’ how the platform was being misused. Jack Dorsey has not been able to answer this till date because he was exposed…Several foreign forces wake up when elections approach India…”the Sports minister said.