Jack Dorsey says India threatened to shut down Twitter, govt calls it outright lie

After former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's claims that India threatened to shut Twitter down unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts, the government on Tuesday (June 13) dismissed the accusations as an "outright lie".

What did Dorsey say?

Dorsey has claimed that Twitter had received "many requests" from Indian authorities to block accounts covering farmers' protests and those critical of the government. He further said that Indian authorities threatened to shut down Twitter's offices in the country if it did not comply with its requests.

Opposition trains its guns on Modi government over Dorsey's claims#ITVideo #Twitter #SocialMedia #JackDorsey #IndiasAgenda | @Scribe_Rahul @PoulomiMSaha pic.twitter.com/60oKRg8XvH

— IndiaToday (@IndiaToday) June 13, 2023

"It manifested in ways that ... [they said] we will raid the homes of their employees, which they did; we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit," he said during an interview with YouTube channel Breaking Points.

Government's response

Union Information and Technology Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar strongly refuted Dorsey's claim that the social media platform came under pressure from the Indian government during the farmers' protest.

Taking to Twitter to deny Dorsey's charge, Chandrasekhar said: "This is an outright lie by @jack - perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter's history (sic)."

This is an outright lie by @jack - perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history

Facts and truth@twitter undr Dorsey n his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa

— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023

"Twitter under Dorsey and his team were in repeated and continuous violations of Indian laws. 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 'shut down'," he said.

Opposition targets government

Several opposition leaders hit out at the government after Dorsey's statements went viral on social media. The opposition leaders attacked the Centre for ''silencing voices" and "cracking down on dissent". Indian Youth Congress president Srinivas BV shared excerpts from the interview on Twitter with the caption: "Mother of Democracy - Unfiltered."

"Father of Hypocrisy - Unfiltered" pic.twitter.com/LNMOgLyGgv

— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) June 13, 2023

Congress's Chairperson of Social Media & Digital Platforms Supriya Shrinate said: "When farmers were agitating at the Delhi border for more than a year, braving winter, summer and rain, they were being called 'mawali, Khalistani, Pakistani & terrorists' and platforms like Twitter were being told that if they show farmers, they will be shut down in India and raided."

#WATCH | On former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey's claim on ‘pressure’ from India, Congress party's Chairperson of Social Media & Digital Platforms Supriya Shrinate says, "The topic of this press conference is to reveal how murder of democracy is being done in the mother of… pic.twitter.com/gLMK9C9PKb

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2023

Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Priyanka Chaturvedi alleged that the Modi government "tried to silence the Opposition" and "arm-twist social media platforms to mute the voices of those supporting the farmers".

The BJP and the government tried to crush the farmers protest,
They tried to defame the movement,
They called farmers terrorists,
They called farmers anti national
They lathicharged the farmers
They let farmers die,
They tried to silence the opposition in parliament
They…

— Priyanka Chaturvedi🇮🇳 (@priyankac19) June 13, 2023

The farmers' protest

The Indian farmers' protest in 2020-21 was against the agricultural reforms that were passed by the Parliament in September 2020. The reforms had been described as "anti-farmer laws" by many farmer unions, and politicians from the opposition who said that it would leave farmers at the "mercy of corporates". The protests were largely non-violent. The protests also demanded the creation of a minimum support price (MSP) bill, to ensure that corporates cannot control the prices.

During the protests, the Indian government sought an "emergency blocking" of the "provocative" Twitter hashtags and dozens of accounts. The social media company initially complied but later restored most of the accounts, citing "insufficient justification" to continue the suspensions, reported Reuters.