India denies threatening Twitter with shutdown
Twitter behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it, tweets India's IT minister
New Delhi: India on Tuesday denied claims it had threatened to shut down Twitter inside the country if it did not block accounts critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government.
Former chief executive Jack Dorsey said Monday that the platform he founded had come under sustained pressure from Indian officials during his tenure.
Dorsey told YouTube chat show Breaking Points that authorities had threatened to "shut down Twitter in India" as well as raid the homes of its employees, unless his company yielded to their demands.
Indian information technology minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar responded Tuesday that Dorsey's claim was an "outright lie", while also accusing Twitter of repeated violations of local laws.
"It behaved as if the laws of India did not apply to it," Chandrasekhar said in a lengthy statement posted on Twitter.
"They had a problem removing misinformation from the platform in India."
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