Was Elon Musk under pressure from the Indian government over a BBC Documentary that led to the closure of Twitter offices?
Amid huge layoffs and a severe cost-cutting, Twitter has now shut down their Delhi and Mumbai offices and asked staff to work from home, according to multiple new reports.
However, the micro-blogging giant’s Bangalore office which largely has engineering staff remains “Operational,” as per the sources.
However, the number of employees affected by the move could not be ascertained immediately as the mail sent to Twitter regarding the issue did not elicit a response.
The closure of the two offices in prime locations in India comes as the social media giant initiated a massive cost-cutting drive globally, after billionaire Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter, last year in 2022.
#ElonMusk #TwitterCEO recently announced the closure of two out of three Twitter offices in #India and sent the staff home. It remains to be seen how this will play out in the long run, but it is clear that it has caused concern and uncertainty among Twitter employees in India. pic.twitter.com/gYGWMORSAV
— Aashvi Goyal (@GoyalAashvi) February 17, 2023
THE FIRM DOWNSIZED
Twitter has now from over 7,000 people to less than 2,300 active employees across the globe as the mass-layoffs was begun with the firing of CEO Parag Agrawal along with the CFO and several other high- ranking leaders last year. Twitter fired the majority of over 200 employees in India as well as in the retrenchments that followed. Only some were saved as layoffs culled roles across engineering, marketing, sales, and communications teams.
INDIA AS KEY GROWTH MARKET FOR US TECH GIANTS
Billionaire and owner Elon Musk has fired staff and shut offices across the globe as part of an effort to make Twitter financially stable by late 2023. Yet, India which is the most populous country is regarded as a central growth market for United States tech giants like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Meta Platforms Inc. which are making long-term bets on the world’s fastest-growing internet arena.
But now with Musk’s latest move, it looks like that he has less importance for the Indian market. It has been observed that Twitter has evolved in past years into one of India’s most important public forums, home to the heated political discourse and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 86.5 million followers.
Not only this, at least a dozen international offices of Twitter have already been closed or facing closure, including some in the Philippines, Hong Kong, Africa, Mexico, Australia, and South Korea, the sources said adding that most of its offices in Europe are also going to be closed.
PRESSURE ON MUSK FROM INDIA TO REMOVE THE CRITICAL BBC DOCUMENTARY ON MODI?
Indian officials apparently called for the Tech giant to take action against the BBC documentary exploring Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s role in a 2002 genocidal massacre in Gujarat, which the officials deemed as a “propaganda piece.” Kanchan Gupta, who is a senior adviser at the Indian government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in a series of posts, denounced the BBC documentary as “hostile propaganda and anti- India garbage.”
Gupta also said that both YouTube and Twitter had been ordered to block links to the film, before adding that the platforms ‘have complied with their directions’.
“Reportedly, the Indian government on a regular basis applied pressure on Twitter in an attempt to bend the social media giant to its will. In fact, they (the Indian government) at one point even threatened to arrest Twitter staff in the country if they refuse to ban accounts run by critics,” according to The Intercept reports.
“Not just Twitter, tech giant Google, which owns YouTube, also come under intense pressure from the Indian government. The company’s public transparency reports show the Indian ruling government has been a prodigious source of content takedowns, sending over 15,000 censorship demands since 2011, compared to under 5,000 from Germany and nearly 11,000 from the U.S. in the same time frame,” The Intercept added.
Read more- Elon Musk Tweets that he Saved Twitter from Bankruptcy
Indian journalist Raqib Hameed Naik told a media outlet that the government has sent hundreds of requests to different social media platforms, especially YouTube and Twitter, to take down the posts that share snippets or links to the documentary”. “And shamefully, the companies are complying with their demands and have taken down numerous videos and posts,” Hameed added.
“This act of censorship is wiping away allegations of crimes against humanity committed by a foreign leader that sets a worrying tone for Twitter, especially in light of its new management,” said the Indian journalist Raqib Hameed Naik.
YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon informed The Intercept that the BBC documentary was removed from the video platform due to the copyright issues claimed by the BBC. However, he declined to comment on takedown demands from the Indian government.
“This act of censorship is wiping away allegations of crimes against humanity committed by a foreign leader that sets a worrying tone for Twitter, especially in light of its new management,” said the Indian journalist Raqib Hameed Naik. YouTube spokesperson Jack Malon informed The Intercept that the BBC documentary was removed from the video platform due to the copyright issues claimed by the BBC. However, he declined to comment on takedown demands from the Indian government.
