Ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Claims Pressure From Indian Govt To Block Critics of Farmers' Protests; Says Threatened To 'Shut Down, Raid Offices'

Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in an interview alleged that during his time at Twitter as the CEO of the micro-blogging site, there were "many requests" from India for holding back information and blocking accounts related to farmers' protests and journalists critical of India. "India is a country that had many requests of us around the farmers' protest, around particular journalists critical of the government. It manifest in ways such as we (govt) will shut Twitter down in India...and raid the homes of Twitter employees, which they did. We will shut down offices, if you don't follow suit. And this is India, a democratic country," said Jack Dorsey elaborating that the Indian government tried to browbeat Twitter into holding back accounts related to the 2020-21 farmers' protest.

Claims widely shared on Twitter

The claims by former Twitter CEO sent Twitter in a frenzy as the clip was shared by numerous accounts. The 2020-21 farmers' protest in India was launched by farmers from the northern Indian state of Punjab and Haryana and other parts to protest against the three farm laws introduced by the government of India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had to finally take back the farm laws as he himself made the announcement following months of agitation by farmers in India.

Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter and was part of the Twitter board for close to 16 years, had announced in May 2022 that he would be stepping down from the Twitter Board. Jack Dorsey's announcement had also come in the backdrop of talks about Elon Musk taking over Twitter. Eventually, Twitter was acquired by Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a US dollar 44 billion deal in October 2022 after a series of flip flops over the deal.