Opposition has upped its ante against Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government following ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claimed the platform was threatened it would be shut down unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts critical of the government during the farmers' protest.
Earlier, the government rebutted the Dorsey’s claim saying his regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law.
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "The Modi Government forced Twitter to shut down accounts of Farmers and Farmer's movement, shut down accounts of journalists critical of Government, or Twitter and its employees would be raided".
"This is what Twitter Co Founder and Ex CEO Jack Dorsey admits in a TV interview. Will Modi Government answer," he asked.
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He also shared clips from a TV interview in which Dorsey levelled the allegations.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too took to Twitter, saying, "During the farmers agitation the cowardly BJP government threatened to shut down Twitter & raid the homes of their employees."
Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, made the sensational allegation in an interview with the YouTube news show Breaking Points on Monday.
He 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 laws in 2020 and 2021.
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"It manifested in ways such as: 'We will shut Twitter down in India', which is a very large market for us; 'we will raid the homes of your employees', which they did; And this is India, a democratic country," he said talking about pressure Twitter under him faced from the Indian government.
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut said: ““I have seen how the democracy of the country and freedom are under threat and how democracy is being strangulated behind the curtain. This makes it clear.”
Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi replied, “Lol! Yeah the law they broke was to allow hate speech and rabid BJP agenda. But there was no crackdown or compliance issues since it supported their agenda. The minute people and opposition started to fight back using the platform, the government started to crackdown! So please, spare this little sermon.”
Farmer leader Rakesh Tikait also reportedly said: “We had information 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 has said this clearly now. But such companies don’t come under anyone’s pressure. Govt of India must have made such attempts…What he said is correct.”
Congress leader DK Shivakumar added that Dorsey’s “revelations show the alarming state of free speech and democracy in India.”
