Jack Dorsey’s farmers protest claim sparks political row; Congress demands answer from Centre

The Congress on Tuesday said the government should stop "suppressing" social media and journalists after ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey claimed the platform was threatened with shutdown unless it complied with orders to restrict accounts during the farmers' protest.

The Centre has, however, rubbished the charges, saying Dorsey's Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law. Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in 2021, made the sensational allegation in an interview with the YouTube news show Breaking Points on Monday.

The Congress also demanded answers from the Modi government over the issue and alleged that there cannot be bigger proof of the "weakening of democracy" in the country by targeting institutions.

"We demand that the government stops suppressing social media, stops suppressing, coaxing large sections of media into submission," Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said at a press conference here. "Opposition voices are regularly being suppressed by the government," she alleged.

Shrinate said Twitter had banned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's account after "pressure" from the government, and alleged that the "truth" has come out after Dorsey's claim.

"The prime minister is afraid because crores have been spent to build his image and that gets demolished when such truth comes out," she said, and added that Dorsey would not benefit anyway by speaking out now.

"There cannot be bigger proof of the weakening of democracy in the country by targeting institutions. This is the truth of this government," Shrinate claimed.

Taking to Twitter, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said, "The Modi Government forced Twitter to shut down accounts of Farmers and Farmer's movement, shut down accounts of journalists critical of Government, or Twitter and its employees would be raided."

"This is what Twitter Co Founder and Ex CEO Jack Dorsey admits in a TV interview. Will Modi Government answer," he asked. Surjewala also shared a clip from the interview in which Dorsey levelled the allegation.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said, "During the farmers agitation the cowardly BJP government threatened to shut down Twitter & raid the homes of their employees."

Shrinate also said that Twitter has become a platform for expressing public opinion, and claimed that Dorsey has made it very clear that during the farmers' agitation, the Modi government "pressurised" the company to stop such content or face raids.

"Twitter was raided and the idea was to suppress the agitation and send out a message," she claimed. Shrinate claimed that recently a Union minister threatened a journalist in Amethi who then lost his job within hours.

"This has to stop. Intimidation of media, journalists and social media platforms has to immediately stop," she said.

In the interview, Dorsey 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 against new laws in 2020 and 2021.

"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; And this is India, a democratic country," he said.

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".