Twitter was misusing its power: MoS IT after Dorsey's "pressure" claim

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday hit out at the "fiction" put out by former Twitter Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey who said that the Indian government had threatened to shut down the social media network in the country.

The minister alleged that between 2020 and 2022, Twitter was found violating Indian law multiple times and the platform had started to comply with the law only in 2022.

Reacting to Twitter co-founder Dorsey's claim that the Indian government had put pressure on the microblogging platform to block accounts during the farmers' protests, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology said it "an outright lie" and "an attempt to brush out the very dubious period" of the social media company's history.

Chandrasekhar said that the company during the period of 2020 Twitter under Dorsey had "weaponised misinformation" against Indians and the government. In his Monday interview with US-based YouTube channel 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar', Dorsey who stepped down from Twitter's board last year, had also alleged that the Indian government had put pressure on Twitter and said that it will shut down the company in India and raid the houses of its employees.

Talking to ANI exclusively, Chandrasekhar said, "During the period of 2020, Twitter weaponised misinformation against Indians and the government of India and therefore they were exposed. Twitter that is now in public domain, during this period was not only partisan but was behaving in an absolute arbitrary manner and the Twitter files that have then come out after Jack Dorsey sold Twitter has exposed it to be a platform that abused its power misused its power."

"Between 2020-2022, Twitter was violating Indian law multiple times. It started complying with the law only in 2022. During that entire period, nobody went to jail, and nobody was raided. Jack Dorsey knowing very well that Twitter did not comply with any law and didn't face any consequence, is today lying and making stories about raids and arrests," Chandrasekhar said.

The minister further alleged that Dorsey's re-brushing the history of Twitter's conduct is a total outright lie.

"Today, for Jack Dorsey to suddenly wake up from his slumber and try to re-brush the history of Twitter's conduct and so far without any consequences, is to say, it a total outright lie," the union minister said.

Also Read: Blatant lie: Anurag Thakur on Jack Dorsey's "pressure" claim

The minister said that Twitter did not believe it was necessary for it to comply with Indian laws.

"Dorsey was Twitter's CEO during a very very dubious period in Twitter's history. What he has said is an outright lie. Twitter is a company that believed that it was not necessary for it to comply with Indian laws. Government of India has been very clear from the beginning that all companies that operate in India have to comply with Indian laws," said Chandrasekhar.

"Twitter was abusing its power as a platform to selectively de-amplify and de-platform people both in India and abroad. In India it was a direct violation of Articles 14 and 19 of our Constitution...I am very disappointed with Jack Dorsey's attitude because of course whatever he said in his yesterday's statement is untrue and wrong," the minister said Dorsey in an interview aired on the YouTube channel yesterday said, ".....India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don't follow suit and this is India, a democratic country."

Chandrasekhar earlier had taken to Twitter to state that under Jack Dorsey and his team Twitter was "in repeated and continuous violations of Indian law and that they complied only after June 2022. "No one went to jail nor was twitter shutdown," he said in a tweet.

He took to Twitter today to post: "This is an outright lie by @jack- perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitters history. @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 the 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," he wrote. He further said that Dorsey's 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," Rajeev Chandrasekhar wrote.

Referring to the farmers' protest in January 2021, he said that since there was a lot of misinformation the government of India was obligated to remove such information from the platform because it had the potential to further inflame the situation based on fake news.

"During the protests in January 2021, there was a lot of misinformation and even reports of genocide which were definitely fake. 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," Chandrasekhar said in his tweet.

He further clarified that no one was raided or sent to jail the focus was to ensure compliance with Indian laws.

"To set the record straight, no one was raided or sent to jail. Our focus was only on ensuring compliance with Indian laws. There is ample evidence now in public domain abt Jack twitter's arbitrary, blatantly partisan n discriminatory conduct and misuse of its power on its platform during that period," he wrote. "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. Our govts policies remain clear for all Intermediaries operating in India - compliance with laws to ensure the Internet is Safe&Trusted, Accountable," he posted further.

Also Read: Cong demands answers on Dorsey's claim of pressure from Centre during farmers' stir