Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on Tuesday talked about difficult demands by the Indian government when he was at the social media company. Interestingly, current Twitter owner Elon Musk has also voiced his opinion on operating in India and how his company works with the Indian government.
In Short
- Jack Dorsey says the Indian govt asked Twitter to take down posts during farmer protests.
- Elon Musk also said that India has strict rules for social media companies.
- The government notes Twitter under Dorsey violated many rules.
By Abhik SenguptaTwitter’s current owner Elon Musk and its former CEO Jack Dorsey have fairly different views and opinions. But apparently, when it comes to India and Twitter, the two share similar opinions. Both believe that India is a difficult place for Twitter to operate and that the social media company has to strictly comply with the government rules and demands or else face consequences.
On Tuesday, Dorsey highlighted that when he was CEO of Twitter, the company faced multiple requests from the Indian government to take down content or block accounts. In case of non-compliance, said Dorsey, Twitter ran the risk of getting thrown out of India. Additionally, according to Dorsey, the Indian government also threatened action against Twitter employees in India in case of non-compliance.
The interesting bit is that Dorsey’s comments somewhat mirror the statement that current Twitter CEO Elon Musk made several weeks ago. During an interview, when Musk was asked about a BBC documentary on PM Narendra Modi and whether Twitter played a role in blocking it in India, he began his response by saying that he was unaware of whether Twitter downplayed the BBC documentary. And then he added, “The rules in India for what can appear on social media are quite strict, and we can’t go beyond the laws of a country… if we have a choice of either our people go to prison, or we comply with the laws, we’ll comply with the laws.”
Musk was referring to India’s IT Rules 2021, under which social media companies need to appoint a senior representative. The rule allows the Indian government to take action against the representative if the platform violates Indian laws.
On the other hand, Dorsey was referring to Twitter’s position with the farmers’ protests in 2021. He said the company seemingly received “many requests” from Indian authorities to block accounts covering farmers’ protests and those critical of the government. He further claimed that the Indian government threatened to shut down Twitter’s offices in the country if it did not comply with its requests.
“It manifested in ways that … [they said] we will raid the homes of their employees, which they did; we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit,” Dorsey said during an interview with YouTube channel Breaking Points.
What is the Indian government saying?
Whether Musk and Dorsey, the BJP-led Indian government’s views are simpleComply with India’s law and order, and you’re free to operate.
While the government did not immediately offer a reply to Musk’s comments on India’s social media rules, he faced heat from some quarters. On the other hand, Union Minister of State for Information and Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar was quick to refute Dorsey’s claims. In a series of tweets, the minister said that claims by the former Twitter CEO are “outright” lies.
In a series of tweets, Chandrasekhar wrote”No one went to jail nor was Twitter ‘shutdown’. 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. During the protests in January 2021, there was a lot of misinformation and even reports of genocide which were definitely fake… To set the record straight, no one was raided or sent to jail. Our focus was only on ensuring the compliance of Indian laws.”
Interestingly, India is not the only country name-checked by the former CEO in his interview. He also called out Turkey and Nigeria, saying that these two countries also threatened Twitter with a ban in case the social media site failed to comply with government requests.
Twitter currently does not have a physical office in India. Also, after Elon Musk fired most of its Indian staff, the company only has a handful of employees in the country. The company could not be reached for comment. Twitter replies to media inquiries with an automated poop emoji and that is what we received in the reply to our email.
Isaac Tremblay
Wilmer Bode
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