Twitter CEO stirs up storm for posing with anti-‘Brahmin’ poster

Team Udayavani, Nov 20, 2018, 4:36 PM IST

New Delhi: Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has sparked an outrage among Indian users after a picture of him holding a poster with message “smash Brahminical patriarchy” went viral on the micro-blogging platform.

The photograph was tweeted by a journalist, who shared the picture and said: “During Twitter CEO @jack’s visit here, he & Twitter’s Legal head @vijaya took part in a round table with some of us women journalists, activists, writers & @TwitterIndia’s @amritat to discuss the Twitter experience in India. A very insightful, no-words-minced conversation”.

The class-specific tweet seemed to have offended many Indians with ex-CFO of Infosys TV Mohandas Pai accusing Dorsey of “hate mongering” against Brahmins and of institutionalising hatred.

“As an Indian I am disappointed at Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s ‘Smash Brahminical Patriarchy’ placard – will Minister @Ra_THORe (Rajyavardhan Rathore) pl take action for this hate mongering against an Indian community,spreading hatred? @PMOIndia @rsprasad”, Pai tweeted.

Twitter, on its part, said the closed door discussion was held to better understand their experience using Twitter. One of the participants, a Dalit activist, shared her personal experiences and gifted a poster to Jack, it claimed.

“It is not a statement from Twitter or our CEO, but a tangible reflection of our company’s efforts to see, hear, and understand all sides of important public conversations that happen on our service around the world,” it tweeted.

However, users seemed unconvinced with many questioning why the CEO of a large company would hold such a poster.

Twitter, which has over 300 million monthly active users, counts India as among its largest markets. It has a large number of Indian politicians on its platform, who engage regularly with the public and extensively use it around elections. The company, however, does not break-out its country-specific user count.

Earlier this month, Dorsey made his maiden trip to India. During his visit, he met Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and Congress President Rahul Gandhi. Dorsey also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discussed the importance of global conversations on social media platforms.