The Congress Tuesday demanded answers from the Modi government after e💫x-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claimed the platform was threatened it would be shut down unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts critical of the government during the farmers' protest.
The Centre hܫas, however, rubbished the charges, saying Dorsey's Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of⛄ Indian law.
In a tweet, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "The Modi Government forced Twitter to shut down accounts of Farmers and Farmer's movement, shut down accounts o⛎f journalists critical of🃏 Government, or Twitter and its employees would be raided".
&quo🐟t;This is what Twitter Co Founder and Ex CEO Jack Dorsey admits in a TV interview. Will Mo🐼di Government answer," he asked.
He also shared clips from a TV interview in whi🙈ch Dorsey levelled the allegations.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh too took to Twitter, saying, "During the farmers agitation the cowardly BJP government threatened to shut down Twitter & raid the homeꦚs of their employees.&q🦩uot;
Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, made the sensational allegation in an interview with the YouTube news show🐟 Breaking Points on Monday.
He claimed that the Indian government "pressured" the company with threats of a🐼 shutdown and raids on employees if it did not comply with requests to take down posts and restrict accounts that were critical of the government over the protest by farmers agღainst new laws in 2020 and 2021.
"It manifested in ways such as: 'We will shut Twitter dܫown in India', which is a very large market for us; 'we will raid the homes of your employees', which they did; And this is India, a democratic🦋 country," he said talking about pressure Twitter under him faced from the Indian government.
Rubbishing the claims, Minister of State for IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said,
💝"@twitter under Dorsey and his team were in repeated and continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact they were in non-compliance with law repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied".
