The new Indian-American CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal, right away ran into a controversy after trolls dug out his old tweets where he seems to be suggesting that “white people are racists.”

The right-wing trolls and some media outfits claimed to have unearthed a decade-old tweet which they said appeared to suggest he believed all white people are racist.

The tweet, published on October 26, 2010, when Agrawal had not even joined Twitter, read “If they are not gonna make a distinction between Muslims and extremists, then why should I distinguish between white people and racists?” 

However, Agrawal clarified in the thread that he was only quoting the comedian Aasif Mandvi who had said something on these lines on the Daily Show, India Times reports.

READ ALSO The Chief Executive Officer of microblogging platform Twitter, Jack Dorsey, has resigned.

This is the fresh ammo that conservative people have got their hands on. They have routinely accused Twitter of censoring them and see Agarwal as Dorsey’s legatee, worked themselves into a lather, wondering if the social media platform would get even harder on them. 

Many right-wing followers have decamped to the platform Parler after Twitter turfed out former US President Donald Trump.

In a move that surprised everyone, Twitter founder Jack Dorsey stepped down from the position on Monday, giving the reins to Agrawal.

Before becoming CEO at Twitter, Agrawal was the chief technology officer (CTO) at the company. As the news about Twitter’s bold move came in, company stocks shot up 10 per cent.