After former Twitter Chief Jack Dorsey backed Elon Musk’s controversial plan to reinstate the Twitter account of former US President Donald Trump, Junior IT minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar today jumped into the debate saying platforming is “a violation of fundamental rights of users” and it must have “force of law behind it” for any platform to exercise.
Tagging Mr Musk and Mr Dorsey, he tweeted, “Deplatforming is a big deal – Its a violation of fundamental rights of users n must hv force of law behind it for any platform to exercise n must never ever be be done arbitrarily.”
Mr Trump’s account, which had more than 88 million followers, was permanently suspended in 2021 after the violent January 6 takeover of the US Capitol for his alleged involvement in inciting the violence. Around 150 law enforcement officers were reportedly injured and two people died during the riot.
The billionaire Tesla and SpaceX CEO said at a Financial Times event on May 10 that he would reverse the ban if his purchase of the social media giant goes through. Mr Musk, who has called himself a “free speech absolutist,” recently inked a $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform.
Mr Musk called the ban a “morally bad decision,” a “mistake,” and “foolish in the extreme.” He added it “alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.” Banning him, he argues, only “amplified his voice among the right.”
He had claimed that Mr Dorsey agreed with him on the ban.
The former Twitter chief also clarified today that “it was a business decision, it shouldn’t have been”. Referring to his statements right after the ban last year, he said “permanent bans of individuals are directionally wrong”. He had called the ban a “failure” of Twitter.
According to news agency Reuters, Mr Trump previously told Fox News that he would not return to Twitter even if Musk purchases the platform and reinstates his account, and said he would use his own social media app called Truth Social, which launched on the Apple app store in late February but was glitchy until more recently when it began letting more users in.
