- India is threatening to arrest Twitter and Facebook employees, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- The threats are to pressure technology companies to give up data related to farmers’ protests.
- Indian farmers have protested since the end of 2020, after the country passed agricultural reforms.
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India is threatening to arrest employees of WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook to pressure companies to share data related to farmers’ protests.
Sources told The Wall Street Journal that technology companies were reluctant to provide India with the requested user data.
Indian farmers have been holding a mass protest – one of the largest in history – since late last year to demand that the government repeal legislation that allowed farmers to sell directly to private buyers instead of selling to the government. Farmers argue that selling to private buyers would lower prices because the government guarantees a minimum price for all products.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pushed for agricultural laws to modernize Indian agriculture, but widespread protest has angered a key electoral bloc. The tense protest resulted in violence, arrests and the government’s decision to cut the internet for farmers.
The Indian government has written letters to Facebook and Twitter citing specific officials in the country who are at risk of imprisonment if companies fail to comply, according to The Journal.
Technology companies and the Indian government clashed on several occasions during the demonstration. Twitter restricted, and then quietly restored, the accounts of journalists and activists who shared information about the protest. The company then said it suspended up to 500 accounts signed by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
“I politely remind companies, whether they are Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or WhatsApp or anyone else, they are free to work in India, to do business, but they need to respect the Indian Constitution,” said Ravi Shankar, Minister of Justice and Technology, told the parliament of India.
Last year, Facebook invested a record $ 5.7 billion in Indian telecommunications company Jio, a move that could extend its reach to the second most populous country in the world. India has more Facebook users than any other country, according to CNN.
Facebook and Twitter did not provide additional comments to Insider.