Parag Agarwal draws flak for old ‘white people’ tweet on becoming Twitter CEO

Parag Agrawal, who has taken over as the CEO of Twitter after resignation of Jack Dorsey, is being trolled over one his old tweets, which the users claim portrays him as a racist. But Agrawal has shut those targeting him, including some Republicans in the United States.

The tweet at the centre of the controversy was posted by Agrawal in 2010, when he was not even an employee of Twitter. It quoted a comedian mocking racism and Islamophobia in America.

On October 26, 2010, Agrawal said, “If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists.”

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Ken Buck, a Republican who represents Colorado’s fourth Congressional district, picked up on this and questioned how users can trust the new CEO of Twitter to treat everyone equally given his views.

Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee chipped in, “This is Parag Agrawal, Twitter’s new CEO and the person who’s going to be deciding what kind of speech is allowed on Twitter.”

Also read: Jack Dorsey resigns from Twitter; Parag Agrawal named new CEO

However, Agrawal had clarified to a user shortly after posting the tweet that he was quoting comedian Aasif Mandvi from The Daily Show.

“I am amused by people that pass judgement on people for passing judgement. I was attempting to do the same to amuse myself,” he had said while responding to a user.

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The latest row started after a right-wing website Breitbart picked up the tweet on Monday and inferred that Agrawal supported racism. It also reproduced an old interview given by the new Twitter CEO to MIT Technology Review, and claimed that free speech was not the focus of the company.

However, other users have defended Agrawal, including Andrew Kaczynski, a reporter with CNN. He posted the original clip of Mandvi’s interview which shows the comedian indeed made those remarks.