Wrong if attempts were made to scuttle farmers' protests: Arvind Kejriwal

It is "wrong" if attempts were made to scuttle farmers' protests, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Tuesday, after Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey alleged the government here threatened to stop the company's India operations if posts critical of the ruling dispensation during the agitation were not removed.

In an interview, Dorsey alleged that during the farmers' protest the government also threatened to raid the homes of Twitter employees if the company didn't listen to what was being told.

"It is unfair... if someone tried to scuttle the farmers' protests, it is wrong," Kejriwal said on the sidelines of an event here.

Dorsey's statement evoked a sharp rebuttal from Union Minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar who termed it an "outright lie".

Also Read | India threatened to shut down Twitter, claims founder Jack Dorsey

The Minister of State for IT tweeted that Dorsey's Twitter regime "had a problem accepting the sovereignty of Indian law".

"No one went to jail nor was twitter 'shutdown'," Chandrasekhar said.

The BJP's IT department head Amit Malviya also came down heavily on the former Twitter CEO, saying the social media company was in violation of laws between 2020-2022 when Dorsey was at the helm of affairs.

Latching onto Dorsey's allegations, the Congress said the government should stop "suppressing" social media and journalists and alleged that there cannot be bigger proof of the "weakening of democracy" in the country by targeting institutions.