New Delhi [India], June 13 : In a rebuttal to former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's claim wherein he alleged that the Indian government threatened to shut the microblogging portal, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Tuesday said that the portal wanted to dominate the government and political scenario during Dorsey's regime.
BJP IT In-charge Amit Malviya, while speaking tosaid 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.
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.
Jack Dorsey in the interview said that there were requests around farmers' protests to shut Twitter in the country.
".....India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers' protests, around particular journalists who 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 on the YouTube channel," he said.
Terming it as an "outright lie", union minister of state for entrepreneurship, skill development, electronics and technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Tuesday hit out at the allegations levelled by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey. 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.
Talking toexclusively, Chandrasekhar said, "During the period of 2020, Twitter weaponised misinformation against Indians and the government of India and therefore they were exposed. Twitter which is now in the public domain, during this period, was not only partisan but was behaving in an absolutely arbitrary manner and the Twitter files that have then come out after Jack Dorsey sold Twitter have 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.
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