Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk Share Similar Opinions On Twitter Vs Indian Government- Here's How?

New Delhi: Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter on Tuesday made a shocking revelation that the Indian government had threatened to shut down the social media platform and raid the homes of its employees if it did not comply with its orders to block certain accounts during the farmer’s protest. The government has strongly denied this allegation and accused Dorsey of lying and trying to cover up Twitter’s repeated violations of Indian law.

Earlier in April, Twitter’s current owner, Elon Musk said that India has very strict social media laws and that he cannot go beyond them. He made this remark in a Twitter Spaces interview with the BBC, where he was asked about Twitter removing links to a controversial BBC documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

 “If it’s a choice between complying with the laws or going to jail, I’d rather comply with laws than have any of my people go to jail,” he said. “We cannot go beyond the law of the country,” Musk added.

The documentary, titled “India: The Modi Question”, sparked outrage among Indians and the diaspora for its portrayal of Modi and his policies. The government had banned the documentary from being shown on social media and other platforms in India, citing its sensitive nature.

Centre Rejects Jack Dorsey's Claims

The government, meanwhile, has slammed Dorsey for his claims and said that they are an attempt to “brush out that very dubious period of Twitter’s history”. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT, said that Twitter under Dorsey and his team had been in continuous and repeated violations of Indian law from 2020 to 2022 and that it was only in June 2022 that they finally complied.

Chandrasekhar said that no one was raided or sent to jail and that the government’s focus was only on ensuring the compliance of Indian laws. He said that Dorsey’s Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law and behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it. He said that all social media intermediaries operating in India have to comply with laws to ensure that the internet is safe, trusted and accountable.