On June 12 (local time), 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” during the farmer’s protest. His statement came without much context of what the Government of India (GoI) said and why it was said.
While Jack Dorsey claimed that they were threatened with raids and a shutdown, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar issued a clarification citing how Twitter under Jack Dorsey was blatantly violating Indian laws and had disregard for the sovereignty of India. He further said that Jack Dorsey was blatantly partisan and de-platforming and de-amplifying voices it did not agree with politically. The full report on what the Union Minister said countering the ‘blatant lies’ by Jack Dorsey can be read here.
Jack Dorsey claimed India threatened to shut down Twitter, raid homes of employees
In the interview with Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti, Jack talked about the takedown requests by India and other countries and how it impacted Twitter’s crusade on “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.”
He pointed out that as now Musk has taken the path of choosing different lines of revenue, it would help the platform to become more open to free speech, but at the same time, pressure from the United States, the Department of Defence, China, Turkey or India can become a “single point of failure”. Dorsey vouched for decentralised social media platforms like Noster and decentralised currency like Bitcoin as the way to move ahead.
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.”
He added that countries like Turkey and Nigeria were similar. Jack said in Nigeria, they could not put employees on the ground out of fear of what government would do to its employees and added, “Then, of course the, the US.”
Speaking on Twitter Files, Jack accused journalists of exposing Twitter’s actions of putting things “out of context”. He even claimed to have no idea about most of the things exposed in the Twitter Files as he was not “that involved” in the process.
Interestingly, while talking about freedom of speech and expression, he blames the very journalists who were exposing the nefarious activities that were afoot at Twitter itself. To shield himself of any culpability, he further says that he was not ‘that’ involved essentially trying to paint himself as someone who was trying to uphold freedom of speech, without being “that involved” and any form of censorship and biased behaviour that was thereafter exposed by journalists was ‘biased’ in itself.
Twitter’s conduct during farmers’ Protests
During farmers’ protests, several incidents happened that required immediate intervention of the agencies to curb the disinformation spreading on social media, including Twitter. On January 26, a tractor march towards Delhi turned violent, and security agencies were on their toes to control the violence and, at the same time, curb the disinformation. In the aftermath of the violence, several alleged journalists, propagandists and left-liberals started spreading disinformation, blaming the government of India and security agencies for attacking and even killing the protesters.
The government of India put out notices to block and take down such accounts to stop the disinformation. However, Twitter decided not to comply with the direct orders from the government and let the disinformation float freely on its platform. On the contrary, the action against the government accounts and nationalists accounts was hostile, to say at least.
For example, during the scuffle between the government and Twitter, in June 2021, Twitter decided to lock then-Union Minister of Information and Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad’s account. It remained locked for over an hour.
The Minister said that Twitter had denied access to his account for almost an hour on the alleged ground that there was a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the USA. The reason given by Twitter for the action was a violation of DMCA, which was odd for the time.
Since Elon Musk took over Twitter, the company has unsuspended hundreds if not thousands of accounts from India and other countries that were banned from the platform for no concrete reason. Among those accounts, many were nationalists and pro-Modi government, including that of former OpIndia’s Ajeet Bharti, whose multiple accounts were suspended before Musk. Comparing what Bharti said on Twitter and what left-liberals and Islamists say on Twitter, the actions taken by Twitter against the likes of Bharti were clearly biased.
Kind of accounts that were blocked
At that time, a lot of disinformation was being spread on social media. One such claim that could have caused a serious law and order situation in the country was of PM “Modi planning farmer genocide“. The hashtag trended on January 30, 2021, after which the security agencies asked Twitter to block it. Hundreds of accounts involved in trending the hashtag were under security agencies’ radar, and Twitter was strictly asked to prohibit any such hashtag from trending. Around 1,100 pro-Khalistani accounts were blocked by the Govt.
Another piece of disinformation was spread by the likes of The Wire and Rajdeep Sardesai, who claimed a farmer was shot dead during the tractor rally. The Delhi Police and the government categorically debunked it, but the lie survived, all thanks to Twitter.
Twitter, at that time, decided not to comply with the government’s orders and let the propaganda run free across the platform. It went into a legal battle with the government to save those who sided with its ideology.
Anti-India propaganda of Twitter and Jack
Not to forget, Jack openly supported journalists during his visit to India that were propagating against India. A photograph of him holding a placard that read Brahminical patriarchy was made to social media, and he never said anything against it despite the outrage.
Furthermore, massive PR and funds for famous international influencers were in play during farmers’ protests. Twitter users with millions of followers, including Rihanna, Lily Singh, Greta Thunberg and politicians like Ilhan Omar, Jagmeet Singh and others, were let run propaganda posts against the Indian government without an iota of responsibility to ensure the stability of a country like India.
Not only during farmer protests and before but also in 2022, Twitter allowed propaganda against former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma to run at the behest of Alt News’ co-founder Mohammed Zubair which led to several murders and law & order problems in the country. From Greta Thunberg Toolkit to campaigns in favour of Pfizer, Twitter played a crucial role in conspiracies against India.
How Twitter essentially went against the laws
India has a robust IT law in place to curb disinformation and make the platforms accountable for their actions. As per the law, Twitter and other social media platforms have to comply with the orders by the Government if they want to hold on to their status as a mediator. On the other hand, despite repeated notices from the Government of India, Twitter decided not to comply with the laws and let the propaganda run.
Their actions were the reason why Government had to put down its feet and tell the company bluntly it would take strict action if Twitter failed to comply. The raid on Twitter’s office was in line with the non-compliance of government orders. Twitter did not take such irresponsible steps in countries like the US and mostly complied with the laws.
Debunking Jack’s claims, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar took to Twitter to slam the former CEO of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, for his tirade against India, where he claimed that the Indian govt pressurised him to withhold several accounts of journalists “critical of the govt” during the farmers’ protest. His full statement can be read here.
This is an outright lie by @jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history
— Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) June 13, 2023
Facts and truth@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… https://t.co/SlzmTcS3Fa
What Elon Musk said in his submission about Twitter breaking India’s laws
In his filing that Twitter has now responded to, Elon Musk said that Twitter had initiated risky litigation against the Indian government, thereby placing its third largest market at risk.
In para 18, Elon Musk says, “These obfuscations and misrepresentations are not Twitter’s only sins. Since the Merger Agreement was signed, Twitter has also made significant changes to its business without obtaining the consent required by the Merger Agreement. Twitter has terminated its product lead and another key executive, retained a board member whose reelection was rejected by stockholders, instituted a hiring freeze, and disobeyed orders from and initiated risky litigation against the Indian government—thereby placing Twitter’s third largest market at risk”.
Further, in para 181, Elon Musk asserted that Twitter failed to disclose the litigation against and the investigation into Twitter by the Indian government, saying, “In 2021, India’s information technology ministry imposed certain rules allowing the government to probe social media posts, demand identifying information, and prosecute companies that refused to comply. While Musk is a proponent of free speech, he believes that moderation on Twitter should “hew close to the laws of countries in which Twitter operates.”
In para 182, Elon Musk says that Twitter has faced various investigations by the Indian government. Elon Musk asserts that the investigation by India could disrupt services in the Indian market, an assertion that Twitter rejected.
In para 184 and 185, Elon Musk goes further and claims that Twitter did not disclose the investigation by the Indian government to him, as per the requirements of the acquisition agreement. Musk further said that Twitter filed a case against India on or around July 6 2022, which would mean that Twitter was under investigation when the merger agreement was signed, and therefore, it failed to disclose the required information to Musk at that time.
In para 190, Elon Musk points out that its combative stance with the Indian government was a “departure from the ordinary course” since it had followed obligations from Russia, including blocking pro-Ukraine accounts. It is pertinent to note here that Russia is ahead of India in takedown requests, according to Twitter’s own transparency report.
A detailed analysis of Musk’s submission in court can be read here.
