Centre dismisses Jack Dorsey’s claims of Twitter shutdown over farmer protests

Union minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that Twitter was in repeated violations of Indian law and started complying with Indian laws only from June 2022

Terming it as an “outright lie”, union minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday hit out at the allegations levelled by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey that the micro-blogging platform had faced government pressure and threats of shutdown during farmers’ protest.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey alleged that the company was threatened with a shut down in India. (Reuters file image)

In an interview to YouTube news show Breaking Points, Dorsey claimed that Twitter was threatened with shutdowns in India, Nigeria and Turkey unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts, with India wanting to curb journalists’ and protesters’ use of the social media platform.

“India for example is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’… ‘we would 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 claimed.

Rubbishing his claims, the union minister said that Dorsey’s Twitter regime “had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law”.

“Between 2020-2022, Twitter was violating Indian law multiple times. It started complying with the law only in 2022. During that entire period, nobody went to jail, and nobody was raided. Jack Dorsey knowing very well that Twitter did not comply with any law and didn’t face any consequence, is today lying and making stories about raids and arrests”, Chandrasekhar said.

Union minister for I&B and Youth Affairs & Sports Anurag Thakur also hit out at the claims of Dorsey.

“What was said, is a blatant lie. Jack Dorsey woke up after years of sleep and 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 to date because he was exposed...Several foreign forces wake up when elections approach India...”, he said.

Meanwhile, the Congress said the government should stop “suppressing” social media and journalists after Dorsey’s allegations came to the fore.

The Congress also demanded answers from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government over the issue and alleged that there cannot be bigger proof of the “weakening of democracy” in the country by targeting institutions.

“We demand that the government stops suppressing social media, stops suppressing, coaxing large sections of media into submission,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.

“Opposition voices are regularly being suppressed by the government,” she alleged.