Centre has responded to Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey's claims that the Indian government 'pressured' the micro-blogging platform to 'block' some accounts during farmer protest. Union Minister of State for Electronics & Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar termed the allegation as an 'outright le' adding that 'no one went to jail nor was Twitter shutdown'. Chandrasekhar further said that Twitter regime under Dorsey had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law.
"This is an outright lie by @jack - perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history," the minister said in the tweet.
Pointing out some 'Facts and truth' about Twitter, he said, "@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 repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied. No one went to jail nor was twitter "shutdown"."
"Dorseys Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law. It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it. India as a sovereign nation has the right to ensure that its laws are followed by all companies operating in India. During the protests in January 2021, there was a lot of misinformation and even reports of genocide which were definitely fake," Chandrasekhar said.
Talking about the Indian government's role in all this. he said, "GoI was obligated to remove misinformation from the platform because it had the potential to further inflame the situation based on fake news."
"Such was the level of partisan behaviour 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 USA. 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 tweet further read.
"There is ample evidence now in public domain abt Jacks twitter's arbitrary, blatantly partisan n discriminatory conduct and misuse of its power on its platform during that period. Twitter under Dorsey was not just violating Indian law, but was partisan in how it was using "deamplify" n deplatforming of some arbitrarily in violation of Art 14,19 of our constitution and also assisting in weaponising of misinformation.," the minister claimed.
He concluded, "Our govts policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India - compliance with laws to ensure Internet is Safe&Trusted, Accountable."