On June 13, Delhi Police denied claims by Twitter founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey about Twitter India office and employees being raided by the Indian government. Times of India quoted sources at the Delhi Police saying that only a single officer of DCP rank had gone to Bengaluru to question Manish Maheshwari, who was managing director of Twitter India in 2021. The officer went to Bengaluru only after Twitter’s MD did not reply to the notices sent by the Delhi Police to join the investigation.
As per reports, Delhi Police had sent queries about the origin of anti-India tweets that claimed PM Modi was preparing for “genocide of farmers” and more. However, Twitter did not respond to the queries. On May 21, 2021, another query was sent regarding the information of the infamous ‘Greta Thunberg Toolkit’ that was used to stir anti-India sentiments on social media.
In a report, Delhi Police said, “Twitter marked the toolkit as ‘manipulated media, arriving at its own conclusion, even as Delhi Police was investigating the matter. Since Twitter Inc. seemed to be acquainted with the facts and material to decide the veracity of the toolkit, Delhi Police asked it to join the investigation to provide any information they possessed.”
Delhi Police noted that Maheshwari attempted to mislead the investigating officers by suggesting he did not represent Twitter. His reply was termed as mischievous by the police. Another three notices were sent to Twitter. When the went unanswered, police visited the Gurgaon office. Meanwhile, Maheshwari kept evading the investigation with different excuses, including Covid-19. He also claimed not to be the right person to respond to the notices.
Police said, “This was an astounding situation where the senior-most employee, identified in multiple places as MD of Twitter India, was saying he did not represent the company, and so wouldn’t cooperate with the inquiry.” In its report, Delhi Police noted to have found a “deliberate corporate veil” spun to avoid any responsibility towards the law of the land. All this was happening while Twitter enjoyed all the benefits of being in a large market like India.
On May 31, Delhi Police officials visited Maheshwari in Bengaluru. He claimed not to be an employee of Twitter but of TCIPL. He further added that Yu Sasamoto of Singapore was his boss. When police questioned why he designated himself as MD of Twitter India, he claimed it was his market-facing title among advertisers. Delhi Police’s report read, “Incidentally, Maheshwari accepted that TCIPL employees received and accepted complaints and forwarded them to Twitter Help, thus also accepting that they know and are in touch with Twitter.” Interestingly, Maheshwari’s email ended with Twitter.
Upon investigation into TCIPL, Delhi Police found that out of 10,000 shares of the company
Twitter International Company owned 9,999, and Twitter Netherlands BV owned the remaining one share. The police said, “The shareholding pattern established that TCIPL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Twitter Inc and that the entire facade of being different entities was to make a mockery of Indian laws.”
Jack claimed India threatened Twitter
In a recent interview, founder and former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey claimed in an exclusive interview on Breaking Point that the Indian government threatened to shut down Twitter if it did not take action against “particular journalists” and accounts “critical of the government”.
He talked about the takedown requests by India and other countries and how they impacted Twitter’s crusade for “Free Speech” during his time at the company. Speaking on how Elon Musk has taken the principle of following the law of the land on what should be allowed on the platform, he said, “Countries like India and Turkey made many requests to us back in the day to take down particular journalist accounts or give contact information and to remove them from the platform.”
Moving further in the interview, Jack specifically targeted India and claimed that requests were made from the GoI to take down accounts of “particular journalists” who were “critical of the government”. He said, “India is a country that had many requests of us around the farmer’s protest around particular journalists that were critical of the government. 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. ‘We will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit’, and this is India, a democratic country.”
