NEW DELHI: Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has slammed former Twitter boss Jack Dorsey for falsely claiming that India pressured the platform to take down tweets critical of the Modi government during the 2021 farmersโ protest.
Responding to Dorseyโs assertion that Indian authorities threatened company officials with raids and arrests for non-compliance, Chandrasekhar, the minister of state for electronics and information, stated that Dorseyโs โoutright lieโ was โperhaps an attempt to brush aside that very dubious period of Twitterโs history.โ
For those unaware, under the Dorsey regime, Twitter officials secretly limited the reach of certain accounts, took down tweets, and pursued a Leftist agenda while violating Indian laws.
ALSO READ: Twitter before Musk regime had power to read your DMs!
In an interview, Dorsey, who sold Twitter to Teslaโs Elon Musk for $44 billion last year, said, โIndia, for example, is a country that had many requests from us regarding the farmersโ protest, particularly journalists critical of the government.โ
โAnd it manifested in ways such as โwe will shut Twitter down in India,โ which is a very large market for us. โWe will raid the homes of your employees, which they did.โ We will shut down your offices if you donโt follow suit. And this is India, a democratic country,โ he added.
This is an outright lie by @jack โ 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 lawโฆ https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa
โ Rajeev Chandrasekhar ๐ฎ๐ณ (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023
In response, minister Chandrasekhar stated that Twitter, under Dorseyโs leadership, repeatedly violated Indian law from 2020 to 2022 and only achieved compliance in June 2022.
ALSO READ: Gadde in soup for blocking damning report against Bidenโs son on Twitter during US polls
He clarified that no employees were raided or sent to jail, contrary to Dorseyโs assertion, emphasizing that the Indian government merely sought to ensure Twitterโs adherence to the countryโs laws, asserting its right as a sovereign nation.
He also accused Twitter of refusing to remove misinformation on its platform, including highly controversial and false reports claiming genocide in India. The Indian government was compelled to remove such misinformation to prevent the escalation of tensions based on fake news.
โTwitter under Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law.โ
Say MoS IT. Lol! Yeah the law they broke was to allow hate speech and rabid BJP agenda. But there was no crackdown or compliance issues since it supported their agenda. The minute people andโฆ
โ Priyanka Chaturvedi๐ฎ๐ณ (@priyankac19) June 13, 2023
Highlighting Twitterโs hypocrisy, Chandrasekhar pointed out that the social media giant was reluctant to remove misinformation in India while taking prompt action during similar events in the United States.
โSuch was the level of partisan behavior on Twitter under Jackโs regime that they had a problem removing misinformation from the platform in India when they did it themselves when similar events took place in the USA,โ the minister said.
Twitterโs ex CEO Dorsey is making a desperate case for himself to cover up his sins. In fact, this inveterate liar is doing nothing different today from what he did in 2018-20 when his Indian female colleagues โ now ousted from Twitter โ openly joined hands with 39 Indianโฆ pic.twitter.com/E8odNaATgs
โ Rohan Dua (@rohanduaT02) June 13, 2023
Referring to the โTwitter Filesโ, the minister highlighted Twitterโs arbitrary, blatantly partisan conduct, and misuse of its power.
โThere is ample evidence now in the public domain about Jackโs Twitterโs arbitrary, blatantly partisan, and discriminatory conduct and misuse of its power on its platform during that period,โ he said.
He further stated, โTwitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian law but was also partisan in how it was using โdeamplifyโ and deplatforming some individuals arbitrarily, in violation of Article 14 and Article 19 of our Constitution, and also assisting in the weaponization of misinformation.โ
Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO, speaks about the challenges he faced from Govts across the world, including India and the United Statesโฆ It is not surprising, because under Dorsey, Twitter had turned rouge, disregarding laws of the sovereigns they operated in, muzzling freedomโฆ pic.twitter.com/dfcWVEXNQb
โ Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) June 13, 2023
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE:
