New Delhi: Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday made a shocking revelation that the Indian government had threatened to shut down the social media platform and raid the homes of its employees if it did not block certain accounts during the period. Did not follow your orders. Peasant protest. The government has vehemently denied the allegation and accused Dorsey of lying and trying to cover up Twitter’s repeated violations of Indian law.
Earlier in April, the current owner of Twitter, Elon Musk had said that India has very strict social media laws and he cannot go beyond them. He made the comments in an interview with the BBC on Twitter Spaces, where he was asked about Twitter’s removal of links to the BBC’s controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“If it is a choice between obeying the laws or going to jail, I would prefer to obey the laws rather than see any of my people go to jail,” he said. Musk said, ‘We cannot go beyond the law of the land.’
The documentary, titled “India: The Modi Question”, sparked outrage among Indians and the diaspora for its portrayal of Modi and his policies. The government had banned the documentary from being shown on social media and other platforms in India, citing its sensitive nature.
Center rejects Jack Dorsey’s claims
Meanwhile, the government reprimanded Dorsey for his claims and said they were trying to “erase that very questionable period of Twitter’s history”. Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that Twitter under Dorsey and his team had been in persistent and repeated violation of Indian law from 2020 to 2022 and it was only in June 2022 that they finally complied.
Chandrasekhar said that no one was raided or jailed and the government’s focus was only on ensuring compliance with Indian laws. He said that Dorsey’s Twitter regime had a problem with accepting the sovereignty of Indian law and behaved as if India’s laws did not apply to it. He added that all social media intermediaries operating in India must comply with the laws to ensure the internet is safe, reliable and accountable.