India, Turkey, Nigeria…: When Former Twitter Boss Jack Dorsey Opened A Pandora’s Box With His Comments Against Govts

Dorsey’s claims against the Modi government led to retorts from the Centre’s officials. But this wasn’t the first time the ex-Twitter boss did something similar.

Dorsey earlier said the Turkish government had threatened to bar Twitter from operating in the country.

Source : PTI

Twitter co-founder and ex-CEO Jack Dorsey’s statement, claiming that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government threatened to raid its employees and shut down the microblogging site in India at the height of the farmers’ protest in 2020, has set the cat among the pigeons. It has led to a new flashpoint between the ruling BJP at the Centre and the Opposition, led by the Congress, which might amplify and grow in decibels in the run-up to next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

As sensational as his latest claim is, Dorsey, during his years as the Twitter head, had several run-ins not just with the Modi government, but other countries as well.

Jack Dorsey’s revelation pertains to certain posts and accounts on Twitter, which he claimed the Centre wanted to be pulled down amid the protests against the now-repealed farm laws in 2020.

According to reports, in 2021, Twitter was asked to take down accounts, numbering in the hundreds, and reduce the visibility of some hashtags in support of the farmers’ protest.

Further, as per reports, a special team of Delhi Police swooped down on two of Twitter’s offices in India later that year, as the microblogging site failed to comply with the government’s directive.

In the wake of the unannounced visit by Delhi Police, Twitter red-flagged concerns over the safety of its employees in the country.

Later, in June 2022, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed that Twitter had complied with the government’s directive, reported Outlook.

Turkey 'Repeatedly' Threatened To Shut Down Twitter

In his interview with YouTube channel Breaking Points, which was streamed live on the social media platform, Dorsey claimed that the Turkish government, under its Premier Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, also tried ‘repeatedly’ to shut down Twitter over compliance issues.

“Turkey is very similar [to India], we had so many requests from Turkey [to take down tweets]. We fought Turkey in their courts and often won, but they threatened to shut us down constantly,” Al Jazeera quoted Dorsey as saying in the interview.

According to another report, Dorsey said the Turkish government had threatened to bar Twitter from operating in the country if it did not comply with directions to take down certain accounts.

More recently, ahead of the Turkish presidential elections, Twitter drew criticism for curbing some content in the country.

Amid the controversy, the microblogging website released a statement saying that it was “in negotiations” with the Turkish government, which had threatened to shut it down if it did not abide by a court order to restrict content.

“We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings — and so in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, took action on four accounts and 409 tweets identified by court order,” CBS News quoted Twitter’s Global Government Affairs Department as saying in a statement.

To ensure that Twitter didn’t draw any more red eyes from the establishment, it censored content from the four accounts identified in the court order.

Similar Treatment From Nigeria

The former Twitter CEO also alleged similar treatment from Nigeria, claiming that the firm could not even post its employees in the country over fears of how the government might respond.

According to a report by Al Arabiya, the Nigerian government suspended Twitter from operating in the country in 2021 after it removed a post by then-president Muhammadu Buhari threatening to act against regional secessionists. 

The ban was lifted early last year after Twitter reached several agreements with the government, one of which was to open a new local office.

Buhari, who ruled the country from May 2015 to May of this year, was constantly at loggerheads with Twitter, which was a popular forum for the country’s youth, civil society and dissidents to vent their outrage and post content attesting to alleged rights abuses in the country.

According to a report by Al Jazeera, in June 2021, Nigeria’s minister for Information, Lai Mohammed, held Dorsey responsible for the destruction of government property and loss of lives during civilian protests against alleged police brutality in the country. 

IN PICS: Leaders React Strongly As Jack Dorsey Claims India 'Pressurised' Twitter During Farmers’ Protest

When Dorsey Tweeted About China's 'Zero Covid' Policy

Also, during his years as Twitter top boss, Dorsey had shared a video posted by CNN’s global correspondent Selina Wang, on unsparing Covid-19 protocols in China and how government authorities in the country were tracking the movements of the people through its “testing and health app”.

Dorsey reshared Wang’s video on China’s much-debated ‘Zero Covid’ policy with a tagline that read, “End the CCP (Chinese Communist Party)”.

According to reports, the news video showed the strict Covid testing protocols in the country while also detailing how a public healthcare app was being used to enforce the curbs and dictate where people can go.

The reports said the ruling Chinese Communist Party made testing compulsory for the entire population of Beijing, estimated at over 20 million people, under its draconian ‘Zero Covid’ policy.

In neighbouring Shanghai, strict lockdowns were enforced during which people struggled to fetch essentials, including food.