India Threatens To Close Twitter If It Doesn't Comply With Censorship Requests

Deputy Minister of Information Technology of India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, denied Jack Dorsey's accusations. (photo: twitter @PIB_India)

JAKARTA - Jack Dorsey, one of the Twitter founders who has stepped down as CEO in 2021. On Monday 12 June, he said that the Indian government had threatened to shut down Twitter in the country if it did not comply with orders to limit accounts critical of handling farmer protests. However, the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called the allegations a "lie".

Dorsey revealed that the Indian government also threatened to conduct raids on Twitter employees if the company did not comply with requests to delete certain posts.

"In various forms, the threat comes as: 'We will shut down Twitter in India', which is a huge market for us; 'we will raid your employees' houses, what they do... And this is India, a democratic country," Dorsey said in an interview with YouTube news show, Breaking Points.

Dorsey did not mention documentary evidence in the YouTube interview, and Reuters was unable to independently verify its specific claims. Dorsey could not be reached for further comment.

Deputy Minister of Information Technology of India, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who is a high-level government official under Modi's administration, called Dorsey's statement a "broad lie".

"No one goes to prison and Twitter is not 'closed'. Twitter regime Dorsey has problems accepting Indian law sovereignty," Chandrasekhar said in a post on Twitter. However, he did not provide further explanation.

Twitter, purchased by Elon Musk last year, did not respond to requests for comment regarding Dorsey's claims or the Indian government's response.

Chandrasekhar said that Twitter under Dorsey and his team " Often violate Indian law repeatedly and continuously," adding that at the time Twitter was "experiencing problems in removing misinformation from its platform in India". Without naming Musk, the minister said Twitter had complied with regulations since June 2022.

Dorsey's statement once again highlights the challenges faced by foreign tech giants operating under Modi's administration, who frequently criticize Google, Facebook and Twitter for being deemed insufficient in overcoming what they call fake or "anti-Indian" content on their platform, or for not complying with regulations.

The comments of the former Twitter CEO attracted widespread attention in Indian media and politicians, because it was unusual for global business leaders or companies to publicly criticize Modi's government.

Last year, Chinese smartphone giant Xiaomi said in a court filing that India's financial crime agency threatened its executive with "physical violence" and coercion, a charge the agency denies.

After an interview on YouTube, several top Indian officials criticized Dorsey's statements and Twitter's handling of misinformation in the past. However, some opposition lawmakers accused the government of silencing farmers' voices during the 2020-2021 protests, one of Modi's most serious challenges.

Modi's government eventually surrendered and revoked the law, which protesters considered anti-farmers. The government maintains that at that time they ordered the removal of content to prevent the spread of misinformation.

"This shows that everyone who dares to show a little courage will be oppressed," said Supriya Shrinate, spokesman for the main opposition party, the Congressional Party.

Modi's administration has consistently denied accusations by its critics that it has restricted free speech.

Twitter's public dispute with the Indian government during 2021 caused the Modi administration to ask for an "emergency blocking" of "provocative" Twitter hashtags such as "ModiPlanningFarmerGenocide" and dozens of other accounts.

Initially, Twitter complied with the request, but then returned most accounts on the grounds of "insufficient justification", which resulted in threats of legal consequences.

A few weeks later, police visited Twitter's office in an investigation into marking several government party posts as manipulated media, a classification used by the company for content "changed or fabricated with deception". Twitter at the time said it was worried about employee safety.

Without providing specific details, Dorsey also said in his YouTube interview that many requests for the removal of Indian content during the farmer's protests were related to "certain nationalists critical of the government".