India threatened to shut Twitter and raid employees during 2020 farmers’ protest, claims ex Twitter CEO
HY News
13 June, 2023 12:25 pm IST
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Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has alleged that the Indian government had threatened to shut the platform and raid employees' houses in the country farmers' protest in 2020.
In an interview with a US-based YouTube channel, Mr Dorsey said India requested removal of several tweets and accounts linked to the farmers' protest. Twitter was also asked to censor journalists critical of the government, he alleged.
In the meantime, India has denied the allegations and accused Twitter of violating laws. "This is an outright lie... Perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter's history," federal minister Rajeev Chandrashekar tweeted on Tuesday.
"No one went to jail nor was Twitter 'shutdown'. Dorsey's Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law. It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it," he added.
Dorsey's comments - made to the American news series Breaking Points - are the latest in an already troubled relationship between Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and Twitter. Dorsey quit as the Twitter CEO in 2021 and the social media platform was purchased by billionaire Elon Musk in 2022.
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