According to Jack Dorsey, co-founder of Twitter, despite being the world’s largest democracy, India frequently requested that specific posts and accounts be removed from the social media platform. These requests were frequently accompanied by legal threats if Twitter did not comply.
Co-founder of Twitter in India
According to the executive:
IND is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government.
The Indian government ordered Twitter to suspend numerous accounts and limit the visibility of certain hashtags within the country in early 2021. Threats of legal action against the social media company based in the United States prompted this action.
It’s worth noting that many of the accounts flagged for suspension had expressed support for the farmers’ protests against the recently proposed legislation.
During an interview, Jack Dorsey discussed the intense pressure that Twitter has been subjected to from the Indian government, which has threatened to shut down the platform in IND, conduct raids on employees’ homes, and close down Twitter offices if their demands are not met.
Twitter had previously shown strong opposition to government directives requiring the removal of posts or the suspension of accounts.
The company even went to court, suing the Indian government to contest various block orders placed on tweets and accounts. The Indian government, on the other hand, argued that the country’s laws applied equally to Twitter.
It acted as if Indian laws did not apply to it. As a sovereign nation, IND has the right to ensure that all companies operating in IND follow its laws.
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