Twitter Ex-CEO Jack Dorsey Exposes Indian Government’s Pressure to Censor Anti-Modi Administration Tweets

• Jack Dorsey, one of the founders and the ex-CEO of Twitter was recently spotted in an interview where he revealed that the Government of India had asked Twitter to black out tweets that were critical of the government. 

• Dorsey said that on rejecting their proposal to block tweets that went against the Modi Government, they threatened to ban Twitter from India and conduct raids upon Twitter employees.

‘Democratic’ India

Several heated debates sparked this week as an interview with former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey appeared on the Breaking Points Show, where he uncovers a harsh side of the Indian Government towards Twitter, where the government tried to control free speech on the platform. 

The host of the show Saagar emphasized Jack’s firm stance on free speech and inquired about any instances where governments from around the world may have pressurized him while he was in a strong position at Twitter. This was asked to shed light on the challenging situations Jack encountered as the CEO of Twitter, with some of the most influential individuals on the planet making demands that potentially impeded the principles of free expression.

Jack started by giving the example of India, “India is a country that had many requests from us around the farmer’s protests around the journalists that were critical of the government.” said Jack. Jack further narrated that they manifested in ways such as:

• Shut Twitter down in India (which is a very large market for Twitter) 

• Raid the homes of Twitter employees (which they did)

• Shut down Twitter India offices

(These statements were given by Dorsey himself in the show)

In this way, they threatened Twitter if Twitter didn’t listen to the government. He satirically smiles and says, “And this is India, a democratic country.” 

Breach of Free Speech 

Modi government’s IT team excels in complaining or even threatening Twitter to block or delete tweets that are against the government or tweets that are from users that belong to the opposition, non-BJP parties, activists, and journalists that have ever dared to speak against the government or their prime minister Modi. The farmers of India carried out a huge protest that started on 9 August2020 and lasted till 11 December 2021 against the BJP-ruled government demanding laws in their favor. They vocalized this protest on social media, especially on Twitter heavily. Now, as people genuinely know, India’s mainstream media (infamously called Godimedia) would refrain from covering the protest properly as it was against Modi, hence making Twitter a compulsory means to reach the people of India who need to hear the news about the protests.  

Seeing these events occur, the government took it to the Twitter offices and CEO pressurizing them to black out tweets and farmer activists’ Twitter handles that expressed their views against the government. This injured the very idea of free speech in a ‘democratic’ nation that gives its citizens the right to protest and criticize what harms the nation. Journalists in India are also openly given threats on Twitter if they attempt to speak in favor of these protests and are sometimes jailed for years. Similar injustice happened with activist Umar Khalid, who has been in jail for almost 3 years and was arrested for a student protest against the government. 

Tweets Against the Truth

Among debates, Sambit Patra, a BJP politician referred to Jack being a puppet of major opposition leader Rahul Gandhi in the cartoon he shared on Twitter:

As the controversy unfolded, the media couldn’t resist the temptation to amplify the drama with sensationalized headlines and fiery debates. Prime-time TV shows were ablaze with the hashtag “#DorseyLies,” pitting ardent BJP supporters against fierce advocates of free speech. However, amidst the chaos, the substance seemed to evaporate, leaving viewers trapped in a fact-less frenzy.

This uproar is an indication of the lengths to which both the media and the Modi government are willing to go to divert attention from the pressing issue at hand—freedom of expression in India. It serves as a stark reminder that raising valid questions about the state of free speech can be swiftly overshadowed by sensationalism and political theatrics.