The controversy surrounding Twitter and India
Introduction
Recently, the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, claimed that India threatened to shut down the company and take legal action against its employees if it didn’t comply with authorities’ demands to remove posts and limit accounts critical of the government. This accusation was dismissed by India as a “blatant lie”.
The Accusation
In an interview with YouTube news outlet Breaking Points, Dorsey said that the Indian government demanded that the platform limit accounts criticizing the government due to peasant protests in 2020 and 2021. Dorsey stated, “It manifested itself in ways like, ‘We’re shutting down Twitter in India’, which is a very big market for us, and ‘We’re going to break into your employees’ homes,’ which they did, and we’re talking about India.”
This is a real lie @Jack – perhaps an attempt to brush out that very dubious period of twitter history
Facts and truth@twitter Under Dorsey n his team they were in repeated n continuous violations of Law of India. By chance of fact they were in default with Read…
India’s Response
The Indian government has repeatedly denied inte censorship and called Dorsey’s allegation a “blatant lie”. The government claims it is only trying to limit the spread of disinformation. India’s Deputy Information Technology Minister, Rajeev Chandrashekar, said on Twitter, “Nobody was jailed, Twitter was shut down and Dorsey’s Twitter had a hard time accepting Indian rule of law.”
The Farmer Protests and Inte Censorship
Protests erupted in India against the new agricultural legislation, which later turned into violent clashes between protesters and police. In response, the Indian government imposed various control measures, including interrupting inte services in some areas in New Delhi and imposing censorship on media content.
In 2021, India asked Twitter to suspend several accounts, including those of activists and organizations supporting the protests in the suburbs of the capital. Twitter initially suspended 250 accounts, but it was short-lived as the platform indicated that there was no sufficient justification for the continuation of the ban.
Twitter’s Stand
Soon after, the Indian government ordered Twitter to ban the accounts again, and informed the company’s employees in India that legal action would be taken against them, which could lead to seven years in prison. However, Twitter refused to comply with the orders and blocked only a few accounts. The platform said that blocking accounts of media journalists, activists, and politicians “violates their fundamental right to freedom of expression under Indian law”.
Conclusion
India’s year-long farmers’ protests against agricultural sector reforms were among the biggest challenges faced by the Modi government. The protests ended in late 2021 after the government made some concessions. The controversies surrounding Twitter’s operations in India highlight the struggle between freedom of expression and government censorship.
The post India Denies Twitter Threats: Jack Dorsey Accused of Spreading Blatant Lie over Limits on Government Criticism appeared first on Asume Tech.
from Technology - Asume Tech https://asumetech.com/india-denies-twitter-threats-jack-dorsey-accused-of-spreading-blatant-lie-over-limits-on-government-criticism/
No comments:
Post a Comment