In response to query on Jack Dorsey's recent interview where he mentioned Twitter's compliance with the Indian government's requests to lock several accounts, Twitter Chairman Elon Musk emphasized the need to comply with local government laws, acknowledging that failure to do so could result in consequences for the company's employees.
We will be shut and our employees will be arrested, said Twitter CEO Elon Musk when confronted by media persons on his reaction to former CEO Jack Dorsey's remarks about the social media firm facing threats from the Narendra Modi government. Elon Musk's views came after the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the New York Palace Hotel in New York City where the duo spoke at length on sustainable energy generation and investment opportunities.
Musk said, “Twitter does not have a choice but to obey local governments. If we don’t obey local government laws, we will get shut down. So the best we can do is to work close to the law in any given country. It is impossible for us to do more than that, or we will be blocked, and our people will be arrested. We cannot just apply America to Earth."
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While stating that it is impossible for 'us to do more than that', the Twitter CEO said: 'There are different rules and regulations for different forms of governments. We will do our best to provide the freest speech that is possible under the law.'
Dorsey had alleged that the social media platform received shutdown threats after not complying with the Modi government's requests to block certain accounts at the peak of the 2020-21 farmers' protests. In an interview on a YouTube channel, Dorsey claimed: "It manifested in ways such as 'We will shut Twitter down in India', which is a very large market for us; 'We will raid the homes of your employees’, which they did; and this is India, a democratic country."
Dismissing the claims as an outright lie, Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar rapped Dorsey for attempting to brush out that very dubious period of Twitter's history.
The Union Minister of State for Electronics and Technology said: "Twitter under Dorsey and his team were in repeated n continuous violations of India law. As a matter of fact, they were in non-compliance with the law repeatedly from 2020 to 2022 and it was only June 2022 when they finally complied."
"No one went to jail nor was Twitter 'shutdown'. Dorsey's Twitter regime had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law. It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it. India as a sovereign nation has the right to ensure that its laws are followed by all companies operating in India," he added.
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