“Foreigner’s version should not be taken seriously”: Members of parliamentary panel on Dorsey’s claim

New Delhi [India], June 15 (ANI): Days after former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey alleged that the BJP-led central government threatened to shut down Twitter in India and have its employees raided at the height of the farmers’ protest in 2020, the Parliamentary Panel for Communication and Information Technology on Thursday refused to discuss the matter saying that the issue wasn’t on its agenda.

“The BJP MP and chairman of the committee refused to discuss the allegation of the former Twitter CEO, saying “a foreigner’s version should not be taken seriously”, according to a lawmaker present in the committee meeting.
Further, the sources said, few opposition lawmakers tried to raise the matter but were asked to refrain from doing so as the issue wasn’t on the agenda of deliberations.

Earlier, during an interview with the YouTube channel ‘Breaking Points’, the former Twitter CEO said, “India is one of the countries, which had many requests around farmers’ protests, around particular journalists who were critical of the government and it manifested in ways such as we will shut Twitter down in India, India is a big marketplace for us. We would raid the homes of your employees, which they did and we will shut down your offices if you don’t follow suit and this is India, a democratic country.”

“Evidence of the representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the subject ‘Citizens’ data security and privacy,” read the agenda of the parliamentary committee on Thursday.

The meeting was attended by the secretary, additional secretary and three other officials including scientists from the Ministry Electronics and Information Technology.

The committee has 31 members from different parties, including both Houses (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha). (ANI)