Won’t send my people to jail in India for violating laws: Twitter CEO Elon Musk

NEW DELHI: Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday told the BBC that he would comply with the law of the land in India rather than send his people to jail as the country has “strict social media laws”.

In a Twitter Spaces interview with the BBC, he was asked about the micro-blogging platform taking down links related to the BBC’s controversial documentary on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“India has very strict social media laws. If it’s a choice between complying with the laws or going to jail, I’d rather comply with laws than have any of my people go to jail,” he said. “We cannot go beyond the law of the country,” the Twitter CEO stressed.

The first part of the two-part BBC documentary series, ‘India: The Modi Question’ raised a storm not just in India but also among the diaspora across the world.

Looking at the sensitive nature of the documentary, the Indian government banned it from being shown on social media, including Twitter, and elsewhere in the country. Musk also said during the interview that there is less misinformation and hate speech on the micro-blogging platform since he took over.

The billionaire has labelled the BBC as a “government-funded media” organisation. After labelling the @BBC account — which has 2.2 million followers — Musk tweeted: “What does BBC stand for again? I keep forgetting.”

However, Twitter did not label the BBC’s other accounts like BBC News (World) and BBC Breaking News. The BBC had said in a statement: “We are speaking to Twitter to resolve this issue as soon as possible. The BBC is and always has been, independent. We are funded by the British public through the licence fee.” According to Musk, “I do actually follow the BBC” as “they have some great material”. (IANS)

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