Twitter founder confirms govt wanted accounts and posts supporting anti-farm law protests blocked
It was already known, but now Twitter founder and then-CEO Jack Dorsey has himself confirmed in an interview that the Indian government wanted many tweets and accounts critical of the government’s farm laws and supporting the farmers’ protests to be blocked, including those of activists and legitimate organisations.
That the Indian government is among the top governments to request Twitter takedowns, as known from information publicly disclosed by the platform, as well as one of the top in terms of blocking internet to deal with law and order situations, is known.
It is also well-known that the government had asked and ensured the closure and blocking of several accounts, and removal of posts, linked to those supporting the months-long farmers’ protest on the outskirts of Delhi in late 2020 and early 2021.
Now comes confirmation of that from none other than Jack Dorsey, a co-founder and the CEO at that time.
Not only that, he alleged—in comments made to the American news series Breaking Points on YouTube—that the government threatened to shut down Twitter and raid the homes of its employees, and this, he said, came from “India, a democratic country”.
“India, for example, was a country that had many requests around the farmers’ protests, 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 told show’s hosts Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti.
Similar requests, he continued, come from countries like Turkey, Nigeria and USA (from the Department of Defence). Earlier during the interview, he had also put China in the same bracket.
While Twitter did close some accounts and block incendiary tweets, it refused to bow down to government pressure for blocking the accounts of a news magazine and activists and organisations supporting the protests, saying that action would “violate their fundamental right to free expression under the Indian law”.
Relations between Twitter and the government have been downhill ever since.
This interview by Dorsey also once again brings into focus the controversial new law that puts social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook under the direct oversight of the government. While it is ostensibly meant to tackle misinformation and hate speech, it has been indiscriminately used to impose indiscriminate censorship.
