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Indian Minister Hits Back at Twitter Founder After Pressure Claim

© AP Photo / Jose Luis MaganaTwitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept. 5, 2018, in Washington - Sputnik India, 1920, 13.06.2023
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In 2020 and 2021, the Indian government and Twitter remained at loggerheads over content takedown requests from authorities.
India's Information Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar has hit back at Twitter founder Jack Dorsey after the latter claimed the federal government allegedly made requests to remove content covering anti-government protests and criticism of the ruling BJP.

"This is an outright lie by Jack Dorsey, perhaps an attempt to brush out a dubious period of Twitter's history," Chandrasekhar posted. "As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied. No one went to jail nor was Twitter 'shutdown' (sic)."

In this Feb. 2, 2013, file photo, a smartphone display shows the Twitter logo in Berlin, Germany, Twitter unsealed the documents Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013, for its planned initial public offering of stock and says it hopes to raise up to $1 billion - Sputnik India, 1920, 14.05.2023
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In a recent interview conducted by YouTube channel Breaking Points, Dorsey was asked if he faced pressure from foreign governments on certain issues.

"India, for example," he replied. "India 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."

Chandrasekhar came up with his own counter-arguments, suggesting that under Dorsey, who resigned as Twitter boss in 2021, twitter displayed "arbitrary, blatantly partisan and discriminatory conduct".

"Such was the level of partisan behavior on Twitter under Jack regime, that they had a problem removing misinformation from the platform in India, when they did it themselves when similar events took place in the US. To set the record straight, no one was raided or sent to jail. Our focus was only on ensuring the compliance of Indian laws," the minister concluded.

Farmers' Protests in India

Dorsey's allegations were particularly confined to a period of farmers' protests in India which erupted in November 2020 and lasted for about a year.
Thousands of farmers took to the streets in Delhi's region to protest three controversial farm laws. Back then, social media was blamed for fueling the unrest.
At the time, the Indian government urged Twitter to remove misinformation about the protests from the platform, and when the social media giant didn't comply, it led to a bitter face-off between the two.
Highlighting this point, Chandrasekhar said: "Twitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian law, but was partisan in how it was using 'de-amplify' and de-platforming of some arbitrarily in violation of Article 14,19 of our constitution and also assisting in weaponising of misinformation. Our government's policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India - compliance with laws to ensure Internet is Safe and Trusted, Accountable."
The farmers' protests were eventually called off after a year in November 2021 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi scrapped the three controversial farm laws.
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