Jack Dorsey's 'pressure' claim triggers political discussions; BJP's rebuts, Opposition accuses Centre of 'suppressing' social media

New Delhi [India], June 13 : The allegations levelled by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have ignited a political debate surrounding the influence of external pressures on political discourse. The BJP has strongly refuted Dorsey's assertion while the Opposition has accused the Central government of stifling freedom of expression and attempting to curtail the power of social media.
The Congress-led opposition argues that the government is implementing measures to suppress dissenting voices and manipulate public opinion.
In an interview with the YouTube channel 'Breaking Points with Krystal and Saagar', on Monday, Dorsey who stepped down from Twitter's board last year, 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.
".....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, " Dorsey is heard saying in the interview to the YouTube channel.
After Dorsey's allegations, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government came back with a strong rebuttal and termed Dorsey's claims a "total outright lie."

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar refuted Dorsey's claim and said that Twitter under him constantly violated Indian Laws.
Chandrasekhar also alleged Twitter under Dorsey's regime was partisan and abused its power and deamplified many people.

Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar today said that Twitter under Jack Dorsey and his team were "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 farmer's 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.
Union Minister Anurag Thakur also slammed Dorsey's claim by stating that "several foreign forces wake up when elections approach India".
Charging Dorsey on the allegations raised in 'Twitter Files', Thakur said, "What was said, is a blatant lie. Jack Dorsey woke up after years of sleep and wants to cover up his misdeeds. When Twitter was bought by another person, it was revealed in 'Twitter Files' how was the platform being misused. Jack Dorsey has not been able to answer this to date because he was exposed"
Twitter Files is a series of tweets brought to light by Elon Musk when he took over as the Twitter boss to expose the misdeeds carried out on the popular microblogging site under Jack Dorsey's regime.
BJP IT In-charge Amit Malviya, while speaking to ANI said that Twitter used to think they are above the law of various countries when Jack Dorsey was its CEO.
"When Dorsey was CEO, Twitter wanted to dominate the government and political scenario. They used to think they are above the law of various countries. The government has full right to suspend those accounts, who want to trigger unrest. That does not mean that it's a violation of freedom of speech," said the politician said.
As Dorsey's allegations triggered a political row on Tuesday, the Opposition accused the Centre of "suppressing" social media and the ruling BJP.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said the political progeny of the BJP-RSS who stood against Indians and fought in favour of the British in the freedom movement, should not pretend to be nationalists over former Twitter CEO's remarks.
"BJP leads in embarrassing the country.... We will continue to foil BJP's conspiracy to end democracy in the country," Kharge said in a tweet in Hindi.
At a press conference, Congress spokesperson and head of the party's social media department Supriya Shrinate said the government should stop suppressing social media and coaxing large sections of the media into submission.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal said that there is no reason for Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to tell a lie.
"First of all, I would like to know, why would Jack Dorsey make such a statement. Rajeev Chandrasekhar says that this is a lie. Why would he tell a lie? There is no reason for Jack Dorsey to tell a lie that they threatened Twitter when the protests were going on, that they would shut their offices and raid then Twitter employees...There is every reason for others to tell a lie because they can't accept this..." said Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal.
Reacting to the same, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the government wants to shut the opposition's voice and that is why they banned Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account.
"The statement of Twitter CEO is totally alarming and shocking for all of us. Entire government machinery is pressurising Twitter CEO to suppress and shut the opposition's voice. That is why they banned Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account," Venugopal said.
"Where is the freedom of expression, freedom of media? They do this to suppress failure. We will raise the issue not only in Parliament, but we will also raise the issue throughout the country," he said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee president Nana Patole also supported the claim of former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey that there was 'pressure' from India to block accounts covering the farmers' protests and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) must have made such attempts.
"What Twitter CEO (Jack Dorsey) said is totally correct. When BJP came into power, media was not given the power to show the truth. Earlier also, the BBC launched a short film on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central agency raided them. Yes, the government must have warned Twitter saying that if they report against us, we will raid departments of Twitter in India".
Further Patole said, "We know that BJP uses central agencies, Twitter is not saying lies but this government is telling lies and they must have used the central agencies against them (Twitter, BBC)".