Former Twitter CEO's remarks on pressures from Indian gov't over farmers' protests evoke strong reactions

NEW DELHI, June 13 (Xinhua)

Strong reactions have been seen in India after Twitter's former CEO Jack Dorsey recently revealed that the Indian Government had "pressurized" his company to desist from giving much space to the farmers' protests on the social platform.

Dorsey, who quit as Twitter CEO in November 2021, said on a Youtube TV channel a few days ago that the Indian government had threatened his company that it would shut down Twitter in India and Twitter's offices and employees' homes would be raided if much space was given on the social media platform to the farmers' protests.

Thousands of farmers had carried out year-long protests around Delhi since November 2020, demanding three controversial farm laws be repealed. The protests finally ended in November 2021 after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the withdrawal of the three farm laws.  

Though described by the federal minister of electronics and technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar as a "lie," Dorsey's remarks evoked sharp reactions from the Indian society, including the Indian National Congress (INC), the main opposition party.

INC spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said platforms like Twitter were threatened with dire consequences if they gave much space to the farmers' protests, and that the raiding of Twitter's offices in May 2021 was to suppress the farmers' movement.

Reacting to Dorsey's comments, farmers' leader Rakesh Tikait said that during the protests they had realized that the kind of reach on Facebook and Twitter that was expected on farmers' protest, had not come. 

"Such companies don't come under anyone's pressure. Government of India must have made such attempts...What he said is correct," Tikait was quoted as saying by a section of Indian media.