On Twitter Ex CEO's Government Pressure Charge, Minister's Sharp Rejoinder

 On Twitter Ex CEO's Government Pressure Charge, Minister's Sharp Rejoinder

In a tweet, Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed the comment as "Outright lie by Jack Dorsey, perhaps an attempt to debunk a questionable period in Twitter's history."

New Delhi: The government today vehemently denied Twitter founder Jack Dorsey's claim of "multiple requests" from India to censor accounts covering the government and farmers' protests, as well as threats to shut down the platform. In a tweet, Union IT Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed the comment as "Outright lie by Jack Dorsey, perhaps an attempt to debunk a questionable period in Twitter's history."

Jack Dorsey was asked in an interview on YouTube channel Breaking Points on Monday if he was under pressure from foreign governments.

He replied: "For example, India. India is one of those countries that had a lot of requests related to the farmers' protests from certain journalists who criticized the government and were like "we're going to shut down Twitter in India"... robbing your workers in farmers' homes, which they did ; "if you don't comply, we will close your offices." And this is India, a democratic country. Jack Dorsey, who stepped down as Twitter CEO in 2021, also drew attention to the governments of Turkey and Nigeria, which restricted the platform in various countries over the years before the bans were lifted. He said that Turkey behaved "in the same way" (as India).

Many congressional leaders shared the comments. In a lengthy post, Rajeev Chandasekhar hit back at Jack Dorsey, saying on the clock that Twitter has "repeatedly and consistently violated Indian laws" and that "Dorsey's Twitter administration has had problems accepting the sovereignty of Indian laws." "In fact they repeatedly broke the law between 2020 and 2022 and only finally complied in June 2022. No one went to jail and Twitter was shut down (sic)," he wrote. .

"Dorsey's Twitter management had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law. It acted as if Indian law did not apply to it. As an independent country, India has the right to ensure that all companies operating in India comply with its laws. During the January 2021 protests, a lot of misinformation and even reports of genocide were spread, which were definitely false," Chandrasekhar said.

He argued that the government "had an obligation to remove false information from the platform because it could further fuel the situation based on fake news".

He continued: "During Jack's administration, the partisan behavior at Twitter was such that they had trouble removing misinformation from the platform in India when they did it themselves when similar incidents happened in the US. No one was attacked or sent to jail." We were only focused on ensuring compliance with Indian laws."

Chandrasekhar said there is "ample evidence" in the public domain of "Jack Twitter's arbitrary, blatantly biased and discriminatory conduct and abuse of power on its platform."

"Twitter under Dorsey not only violated the Indian Act but was biased in the way it arbitrarily used 'unbundling' and 'unplatforming' which violated Article 14,19 of our Constitution and also helped spread misinformation. Government policy continues to be clear. all intermediaries operating in India - compliance with the law, so that the Internet is safe and reliable, responsible," said the minister.