Musk now targets Indian-origin Twitter legal head Vijaya Gadde
Darpan News Desk IANS, 27 Apr, 2022 11:00 AM
New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Even as tech billionaire Elon Musk took over Twitter, he slammed Indian-origin lawyer Vijaya Gadde over censoring exclusive stories related to US President Joe Biden's son Hunter's laptop in the wake of the Capitol Hill violence, early this year.
Gadde, who has been working with Twitter since 2011, has been a key executive charged with overseeing the microblogging platform's trust and safety, legal and public policy functions. She had also been involved in decisions to remove former US President Donald Trump and banning political advertising on the platform.
Musk on Twitter slammed the lawyer for suspending the account of the New York Post. During the run-up to the 2020 US presidential elections, the Post wrote an exclusive article about Hunter Biden's laptop. The article has since been verified by many outlets which had initially dismissed the report as misinformation.
"Suspending the Twitter account of a major news organisation for publishing a truthful story was obviously incredibly inappropriate," Musk said in a tweet.
Musk said this in reply to podcast host Saagar Enjeti who shared a Politico report, stating that Gadde reportedly had a tearful virtual meeting with her teams, expressing concerns over the future of the platform, after Musk took over Twitter in a $44 billion deal.
"Vijaya Gadde, the top censorship advocate at Twitter who famously gaslit the world on Joe Rogan's podcast and censored the Hunter Biden laptop story, is very upset about the Elon Musk takeover," Enjeti tweeted.
Musk had long been advocating free speech on the platform, creating apprehensions for many as they fear the site will be left without regulations.
"The extreme antibody reaction from those who fear free speech says it all," Musk wrote on Twitter.
"By 'free speech', I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people," he explained.
While complimenting the enforcement officers, he said their hands-on approach has led to large number of seizures in the state of fake and smuggled goods. He was speaking at an interactive session by FICCI CASCADE on the 'Strategies' to combat smuggling and counterfeiting, here.
Cheema was responding the Centre's decision on new rules governing the Chandigarh Administration employees, who are currently working under the Punjab service rules but will now come under the Central Civil Services Rules.
Reacting strongly to the announcement by Union Home Minister Amit Shah to bring Chandigarh union territory employees under Central civil services rules, the SAD said, "It is incumbent on the AAP government to make the Centre understand that Chandigarh is a union territory as per an ad-hoc arrangement only.
As per the Commission, as no objection has been lodged with them from anywhere on this issue, no action can be taken in advance in this matter.Starting from the 2022-23 academic year, the state government has decided to add the Hindu religious book to the curriculum of classes 6 to 12.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials carried out raids at 11 places in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) in connection with the fake gun licences scam in which Rs 2.78 lakh were issued to non-entitled persons. The ED carried out raids till Thursday evening.
"As the police reached the spot, they found a purple colour traveller bag in which an unknown body of male, 20/22 years old, with throat slit injuries, was stuffed," said the official, adding the body was clad in white kurta pajama.
