‘Outright lie’: Center rejects Jack Dorsey’s claim that Indian government ‘pressured’ Twitter

New Delhi: The Center has reacted strongly to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s allegations that the Indian government put a lot of ‘pressure’ to ‘block’ some accounts on the micro-blogging platform during farmers’ protests, calling it ‘absolutely false’. Poured. Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar termed the allegation as ‘absolutely false’ and said that ‘no one went to jail and Twitter was shut down’. Union minister said the problem with accepting the Twitter regime under Dorsey was the sovereignty of Indian law

“This is a blatant lie by @Jack – perhaps an attempt to brush off that very questionable period of Twitter history,” the minister said in the tweet.

Rajeev Chandrasekhar also pointed out some ‘facts and truth’ about Twitter and said, “Dorsey and his team under @twitter were repeatedly violating Indian law. In fact, they were repeatedly violating the law.” Were not complying. From 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied. No one went to jail and Twitter was “shutdown”.

this is a lie @jack – perhaps an attempt to sweep away that very questionable period in Twitter’s history

facts and truth@Twitter Under Dorsey and his team, the laws of India were repeatedly violated. Basically they weren’t following the law… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa– Rajeev Chandrasekhar (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023

Jack Dorsey accused the Government of India of pressure

The response from the Center comes after Twitter’s former CEO Jack Dorsey made searing remarks claiming that India had put pressure on the micro-blogging platform, including threatening to shut it down and raiding employees’ homes. involved doing During an interview with YouTube channel Breaking Points late on Monday, Dorsey said the threats came after Twitter refused to comply with the government’s demands to block accounts during farmers’ protests in early 2021.

Dorsey, when asked to share some examples on the channel, said, “We will raid the houses of your employees, which they did. If you don’t follow suit, we will shut down your offices. And this is India in a democratic country.” country.” of pressure from foreign governments during his tenure before Elon Musk took office.

“India is a country that had made many requests to us around the farmers’ protest, especially around journalists who were criticizing the government, and it came across as ‘we will shut down Twitter in India’, which is a There’s a huge market for us,” Dorsey continued.

Last year, Twitter told the Karnataka High Court that it had been asked to completely block several accounts during the farmers’ agitation at the Delhi borders in 2021. Violates the rights of users under the Constitution. In the petition, the government’s move has also been described as arbitrary and in violation of Section 69A of the IT Act.

The central government’s contention was that the blocking orders were issued in the national and public interest and the action was taken to prevent lynching and mob violence.

Congress hits out at Center over Twitter ‘raids’

Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday pressed the BJP-led NDA government at the Center over former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s remarks and asked whether the Narendra Modi government would respond to it.

Congress general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala said in a tweet, “Modi government forced Twitter to close accounts of farmers and farmers’ movement, closed accounts of journalists critical of the government or Twitter, and raided its employees.” Will be killed. That’s Twitter.” co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey conceded in a TV interview. Will the Modi government respond?”

Youth Congress and National Students’ Union of India also took to Twitter to share clips of Dorsey’s claim, which he made during an interview to YouTube channel Breaking Points on Monday.

NSUI President Neeraj Kundan said in a tweet, “BJP is the killer of democracy, it is being proved again and again. This is Jack Dorsey, ex-CEO of Twitter. Here he is saying ‘During the farmer’s protest, the Government of India Pressurized and said we will shut down Twitter and raid your employees’ homes if you don’t follow suit.”

Youth Congress chief Srinivas BV took a jibe at the government and said, “Mother of democracy – unfiltered.” “During the farmer’s protest, the Modi government put pressure on us and said we will shut down your offices, raid your employees’ homes, which they did if you don’t follow suit – Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO ,” Srinivas wrote on Twitter, attaching the clip of Dorsey’s interview to the video.

Even Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) faction leader Priyanka Chaturvedi hit out at the BJP and said, “The BJP and the government tried to crush the farmers’ protest, they tried to defame the movement, they Terrorists, They called farmers traitors, They lathicharged farmers, They let farmers die, They tried to silence the opposition in Parliament, They suppressed social media platforms to suppress the voice of those who support farmers Tried to… But despite their might, in spite of their might, the farmers bowed to their arrogance and forced the government to withdraw the Farmers Act. Indian democracy or the rule of Moditantra?

Farmers from several states protested at Delhi borders for more than a year since November 2020. Prime Minister Narendra Modi acknowledged the failure to convince the farmers and appealed to them to call off their year-long protest. All the three laws were withdrawn in the winter session of Parliament.