New Delhi: Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar on Monday rejected the claims of former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey who said that the Indian government had forced the micro-blogging platform to limit coverage during farmers moverment.

The minister called it a “outright lie.”

Picking up the controversy stroke by the former Twitter CEO in an interview to the YouTube channel and podcast Breaking Points, Jack Dorsey highlighted that India is a democratic country and said the government ‘threatened ‘to raid houses of those journalists who were “critical”, “which they did.”

He said, “India for example, India is one of the countries which had many requests around farmers protests, around particular journalists which were critical of the government, and it manifested in ways such as ‘we will shut Twitter down in India’… ‘we would 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.”

Mother of Democracy – Unfiltered

"During farmer protest, Modi govt pressurized us and said we will shut down your offices, raid your employees' homes, which they did if you don’t follow suit."

– Jack Dorsey, former Twitter CEO pic.twitter.com/tOyCfyDWcz

— Srinivas BV (@srinivasiyc) June 12, 2023

Opposition reacts

Congress leader Supriya Shrinate on Tuesday hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) after former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey alleged that the Indian government had asked to limit coverage of farmers movement on the social media platform.

Congress’ chairperson of Social Media and Digital Platforms Shrinate was addressing a publuc conference and said, “The topic of this press conference is to reveal how murder of democracy is being done in the mother of democracy…”

#WATCH | On former CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey's claim on ‘pressure’ from India, Congress party's Chairperson of Social Media & Digital Platforms Supriya Shrinate says, "The topic of this press conference is to reveal how murder of democracy is being done in the mother of… pic.twitter.com/gLMK9C9PKb

— ANI (@ANI) June 13, 2023

“When farmers were agitating at the Delhi border for more than a year, braving winter, summer and rain, they were being called ‘mawali, Khalistani, Pakistani & terrorists’ and platforms like Twitter were being told that if they show farmers, they will be shut down in India and raided…,” she added.

Responding to the controversy, farmer leader Rakesh Tikait, said that they did not get as much reach for farmers protest through Facebook and Twitter as they expected. Tikait said, “Jack Dorsey is right, Indian government must have made efforts.”