Ex-CEO of Twitter Claims ‘Pressure’ from Indian Government during Farmers’ Protest

New Delhi, 13th June 2023: Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated in a viral interview that Twitter received numerous demands from the Indian authorities to take action against accounts documenting the 2020-21 farmers’ protests.

According to Dorsey, the Indian government also requested that Twitter take action against journalists who were critical of the administration at the time.

In an interview with the YouTube channel Breaking Points, the former Twitter CEO stated, “India is a country that had many requests of us around the farmers’ protest, around particular journalists that were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’, which is a very large market for us.”

He further accused the Indian Government of threatening them and saying, “ ‘We will raid the homes of your employees’, which they did; ‘we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit’. And this is India, a democratic country.”

Farmers marched to the streets in November 2020 to protest the three farm regulations passed by Parliament in September 2020. Farmers began protesting at three Delhi border crossings: Ghazipur, Tikri, and Singhu. Farmer unions had requested, among other things, a legislative guarantee of the minimum support price (MSP) for crops.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared the abolition of the three agriculture laws in November 2021. At the time, the Prime Minister admitted the government’s failure to communicate with farmers while urging them to end their protests.