‘Lies’ vs ‘Not Shocking’: BJP, Oppn’s Verbal Duel as Dorsey Alleges Threat to Twitter During Farmers’ Stir

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey’s sensational allegations on “threat from the Indian government” led to a massive war of words between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government and the Opposition parties.

While Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar dismissed the accusations as an “outright lie”, Congress MP Manish Tewari said that Dorsey’s claims are not “surprising at all” as after 2014, there has been a “systematic erosion of the freedom of speech and expression and civil liberties in the country”.

“Unfortunately, this phenomenon is not confined to the central government alone. Certain state governments also have been equally draconian and authoritarian in the manner in which they seek to stifle dissent and try and proscribe alternative voices,” he added.

In an interview, Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, claimed that the Indian government “pressured” the company with threats of a shutdown and raids on employees if it did not comply with requests to take down posts and restrict accounts that were critical of the government over the protest by farmers against new agricultural laws in 2020 and 2021.

Rubbishing the claims, the Minister of State for IT tweeted that Dorsey’s Twitter regime “had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law”. “No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shutdown’,” Chandrasekhar said.

Talking to News18, Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, “Facts are very simple. Twitter, as a company, thought that it was beyond the sovereignty of Indian laws. They were repeatedly in non-compliance and violation of Indian laws from 2020 to 2022. Only in June last year, they started complying to the Indian rule.”

He further said that during the entire duration that they were in violation of the Indian law, nobody was raided or jailed.

“Twitter, under Jack Dorsey’s leadership, misused the platform to silence some people and to amplify some people; to platform and de-platform some people. They were every day violating Articles 14 and 19 of our Indian Constitution, and the rights of Indian citizens. I find it astonishing that a man who presided over such violation of fundamental rights has now suddenly surfaced and is spreading falsehood,” the minister said.

Union minister Anurag Thakur and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad too said that Dorsey is lying and is trying to politicise the matter.

Opposition Reaction on Jack Dorsey’s Claims

Trinamool Congress leader Saket Gokhale, meanwhile, said that BJP government has turned social media in India into their “personal propaganda tool”. “Anything that criticized the government or the BJP is clamped down upon. The central government, as is now revealed, has brazenly violated laws to intimidate social media companies into crushing criticism,” he added.

Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait said, “We were informed that the kind of reach on Facebook and Twitter that was expected on farmers’ protest, was not coming. They used to try to stop it at their level. The head (former CEO of Twitter ) has said this clearly now. But such companies don’t come under anyone’s pressure. The government of India must have made such attempts…What he said is correct”

TMC quoted Ugandan dictator Idi Amin: “There is freedom of speech, but I cannot guarantee freedom after speech”.

Congress leader Srinivas BV uploaded Jack’s statement and said “Mother of Democracy – Unfiltered”.