The Centre has fired back at Jack Dorsey, the co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, following Dorsey’s claim that the Indian Government exerted pressure on the platform to block accounts critical of the Government and covering farmers’ protests.
Countering Dorsey’s charge, Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur on Tuesday said “false allegation” was an attempt to cover up past misdeeds and Twitter’s internal communications had exposed that the platform was “misused and there was bias and tinkering”.
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar too accused Twitter, under Dorsey’s leadership, of repeatedly violating Indian law and, at times, weaponising misinformation.
The BJP’s IT department head Amit Malviya also said Dorsey had violated the country’s laws between 2020 and 2022 when he was at the helm of affairs.
In an interview late on Monday to YouTube channel Breaking Points, Dorsey spoke about the requests made by the Indian Government to Twitter.
When asked about the pressures he had received from foreign Governments during his time as CEO of Twitter, Dorsey disclosed that Twitter received numerous demands related to accounts associated with the farmers’ protest and journalists who were critical of the Government. The pressure from the Government reportedly involved threats of shutting down Twitter in India, conducting raids on employees’ homes, and closing Twitter offices unless compliance was ensured.
These actions, as highlighted by Dorsey, raise concerns within the context of a democratic country like India.
“India is a country that had many requests of us around the farmer’s 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,” he said.
Twitter’s new CEO, Elon Musk, had also expressed similar views on India’s social media regulations, referring to them as “strict.” Musk previously stated his preference for complying with Government blocking orders rather than risking the imprisonment of Twitter employees.
The issue at hand draws attention to the challenges faced by Twitter in India, a crucial market for the platform. During the height of the farmers’ protest in 2021, the Indian Government requested Twitter to remove approximately 1,200 accounts allegedly associated with the “Khalistan” movement.
Additionally, over 250 accounts were flagged for removal. Although Twitter initially complied by blocking some accounts, it later unblocked them, leading to dissatisfaction within the IT ministry. The platform’s subsequent stance, citing the importance of freedom of speech, was met with criticism from the government, which argued that Twitter cannot assume the role of a court and justify non-compliance.
In May 2021, tensions escalated when Twitter flagged posts by leaders of the ruling party as “manipulated media.” Following this, the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, operating under the Union Home Ministry, visited Twitter India’s offices in Delhi and Gurugram to serve a notice to the social media platform.
Countering allegations made by Dorsey, Thakur said it was an attempt to cover up “past misdeeds” and that Twitter’s internal communications had exposed that the platform was “misused and there was bias and tinkering”.
Thakur said many “foreign forces” get active at the time of elections to vitiate the democratic process and build tension, but such attempts have failed in the past and would not succeed in the future also.
“Such elements within the country and abroad will never be able to destabilise the nation which is being led by a strong leader,” the Minister told reporters at Shimla in Himachal Pradesh.
“Dorsey has woken up after deep slumber and is making allegations to cover up his black deeds,” he said.
Malviya said that under Dorsey the firm had turned “rogue, disregarding laws of the sovereigns they operated in, muzzling freedom of speech (shadow banning ideologically differing voices) and in many cases promoting secessionist voices and those who were working to exacerbate social fault lines, including several Twitter employees (Dorsey himself is guilty of it)…”
He said ‘Twitter Files’, released after Musk got rid of “toxic people” in Twitter, is a testimony.
“It can’t be the case that Twitter was always in the right and every other Government, including their own, in the US, was wrong,” said Malviya.
“But neither was Twitter ever shut down nor its employees raided or sent to jail, despite Dorsey and his colleagues actively pursuing a policy, which was at loggerheads with Indian regulations. They were also allowing their platform to be used by foreign forces inimical to India’s interest, on several occasions, which posed grave threat to India’s national security and well being,” said Malviya.