Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey had sparked a war of words earlier this week after alleging that the Indian government had previously threatened to shut down the microblogging site’s operation in India. Opposition leaders had clamoured for a discussion on the topic during a parliamentary standing committee meeting on Thursday afternoon. Officials however insisted that the issue wasn’t on its agenda.
“The BJP MP and chairman of the committee refused to discuss the allegation of the former Twitter CEO, saying a foreigner’s version should not be taken seriously,” news agency ANI quoted a lawmaker present in the committee meeting as recounting.
The meeting had been held under the chairmanship of Shiv Sena (Shinde faction) Lok Sabha MP Jadhav Prataprao Ganpatrao. The panel had been called to discuss citizen data security and privacy.
Reportedly, some opposition lawmakers tried to raise the matter but were asked to refrain from doing so as the issue wasn’t on the agenda of deliberations.
Dorsey had broached the topic during an interview with the YouTube channel ‘Breaking Points’ earlier this month.
“India is one of the countries, which had many requests around farmers’ protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit and this is India, a democratic country,” the former Twitter CEO said.
Meanwhile, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar asserted that Dorsey’s claim was an “outright lie”. Addressing the inaugural edition of FinancialExpress.com’s Digital Bharat Economy Conclave 2023 on Wednesday, he insisted that no such interaction had even taken place.
“It is an outright lie because at no time in the history, specifically in the 2020-2022 period, has Government of India ever done anything to Twitter, despite the fact that the platform was in violation of Indian laws for a period of two years. The government didn’t shut down Twitter or jail anybody and it is ironic because I have to quote inaction on the part of the government against violation of law to deny what Jack Dorsey has put out there,” Chandrasekhar said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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Updated: 16 Jun 2023, 12:58 AM IST
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