Twitter CEO trolled for ‘hate mongering’ against Brahmin caste
NEW DELHI Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has kicked up a social media storm in India after a picture of him with a placard saying "smash Brahminical patriarchy", referring to the highest Hindu caste, went viral in one of the company's fastest-growing markets.
The picture, posted on Twitter on Sunday by a journalist who was part of a group of women activists and writers whom Mr Dorsey met during a visit to India last week, had him clutching a poster of a woman holding up a banner with the line that has offended many Indians.
Mr T.V. Mohandas Pai, a former finance chief of software exporter Infosys, accused Mr Dorsey of "hate mongering" against Brahmins. "Tomorrow if @jack is given a poster with anti Semitic messages in a meeting, will his team allow him to hold it up?," Mr Pai tweeted. "Why is that any different? Inciting hate against any community is wrong."
Twitter India said the poster was handed to Mr Dorsey by a Dalit activist - Dalits are at the bottom of the Hindu caste system - when it hosted a closed-door discussion with a group of women to know more about their experience using Twitter.
It added the poster was 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".
Twitter official Vijaya Gadde, who accompanied Mr Dorsey to India, apologised later."I'm very sorry for this. It's not reflective of our views. We took a private photo with a gift just given to us - we should have been more thoughtful," she said in a tweet.
"Twitter strives to be an impartial platform for all. We failed to do that here & we must do better to serve our customers in India."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with 44.4 million followers, is one of Twitter's biggest supporters. "I enjoy being on this medium, where I've made great friends and see everyday the creativity of people," he tweeted last week after meeting Mr Dorsey. - REUTERS
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