Amit Malviya Alleges Twitter Breached Laws Between 2020-22
Amit Malviya, the head of BJP’s IT department, criticized Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, stating that the social media platform had breached laws during his tenure from 2020 to 2022.
Malviya’s counterattack came via a Twitter post after Dorsey claimed the Indian government had threatened raids and shutdowns on workers if the company did not remove posts critical of the government during farmers’ protest against three new laws in 2020 and 2021.
Malviya said that under Dorsey, the company had turned “rogue, disregarding the laws of the sovereigns it operates under, stifling free speech (the shadow banning ideologically diverse voices) and in many cases promoting the voices of secessionists and those who seek to exacerbate social divides. including several Twitter employees (Dorsey you are to blame for that)…”
He said the “Twitter Files,” released after Elon Musk got rid of “toxic people” on Twitter, are proof.
“It can’t be that Twitter has always been right and every other government, including their own in the US, has been wrong,” Malviya said.
He said that Twitter violated Indian laws for a long time (2020-2022).
“But Twitter was never shut down and its employees were never raided or sent to jail, even though Dorsey and his colleagues actively pursued policies that were against Indian regulations. They also allowed foreign forces to use their platform, which was anti-India. On several occasions, which was serious a threat to India’s national security and well-being,” Malviya said.
He also criticized the opposition Congress, saying they were “excited” by the “false claims of a spineless liar”.
“Rahul Gandhi goes abroad and seeks help from foreign powers and his henchmen in India are amplifying misguided voices to demonize India… Is reliance on foreign money and media the only way Congress hopes to undermine the will of the people and destroy a democratically elected government?” he said.
Party spokesman Sambit Patra also claimed that Twitter had broken the law.
During farmers’ protests in January 2021, he said there was “a significant amount of misinformation circulating, including reports of genocide, which later turned out to be false”.
“The Indian government is responsible for ensuring that intermediaries operating in India follow the laws of the country to maintain accountability and a safe online space. Twitter certainly did not follow Indian laws,” Patra added.
Dorsey, who will step down as Twitter CEO in 2021, made the sensational claim in an interview with the YouTube news program Breaking Points on Monday.
Dorsey claimed that the Indian government “pressured” the company by threatening to shut down and rob workers if it did not comply with requests to remove posts and limit accounts that criticized the government for farmers’ protest against new laws in 2020 and 2021.
Minister of State for IT, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said of the allegations: “Twitter under Dorsey and his team repeatedly and consistently violated Indian law. In fact, they repeatedly failed to comply between 2020 and 2022, and it was only in June 2022 that they finally complied.”
