Jack Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, has stated that they faced “constant threat of being shut down” in Turkey. Dorsey, who was the CEO of Twitter until November 2021, made these remarks in an interview on the YouTube news program Breaking Points.
Dorsey said, “For example, India. It is a country that makes numerous requests from us regarding farmer protests and journalists criticizing the government.” He added, “They did it in various ways. They said, ‘We will shut down Twitter in India.’ And it’s a very big market for us. They said, ‘We will raid your employees’ homes.’ And they did. They said, ‘If you don’t do as we say, we will close your offices.’ And this is in a democratic country like India.”
The farmer protests in India, which lasted for about a year, came to an end in December 2021 as a result of the government’s concessions on agricultural laws. The demonstrations were among the largest protests faced by the Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
‘We Were Constantly Threatened in Turkey’
According to Reuters, Dorsey stated that they faced similar pressures from the governments of Turkey and Nigeria. Dorsey mentioned that there was a “very similar” situation in Turkey as in India and said, “We received numerous requests from Turkey. We fought in Turkish courts, and we mostly won. But they constantly threatened to shut us down.”
Dorsey also noted that they couldn’t send personnel to Nigeria because they feared what the government could do.
In 2021, Nigeria suspended Twitter after the platform deleted a tweet by then-President Muhammadu Buhari, which threatened separatists. The ban was lifted in early 2022 after an agreement was reached for Twitter to establish an office in the country.
DENIAL FROM INDIA
The Indian government, which has repeatedly denied allegations of internet censorship, claimed that Dorsey’s statements were also untrue.
Information Technology Deputy Minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar said that Dorsey’s claims were “blatant lies.” Chandrashekhar stated in a message shared on his Twitter account, “No one went to jail, and Twitter was not shut down. Dorsey had a problem with Twitter accepting the sovereignty of Indian laws.”
Dorsey, one of the four founders of Twitter, stepped down as CEO of the company in November 2021. In 2022, the billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk acquired Twitter.
