Rahul calls Twitter action ‘attack on India’s democratic structure’

Rahul Gandhi took his fight with Twitter to YouTube as the senior Congress leader released a video on Friday (August 13) accusing the social media giant of attacking “the democratic structure of the country”.

Notably, Twitter has locked Gandhi’s account for sharing a picture of his interacting with parents of a Delhi-based Dalit girl, who was allegedly raped and killed last week. The Congress MP said that by doing so Twitter was “interfering in our political process”. Since his account is locked, Rahul Gandhi cannot tweet, retweet or like any posts, but can only send direct messages to followers.

Gandhi released a video on YouTube titled, “Twitter’s Dangerous Game”, to express his anguish. “By shutting down my twitter they are interfering in our political process. A company is making its business to define our politics and as a politician I don’t like that. This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country,” he said.

“As Indians we have to ask the question – are we going to allow companies, just because they are beholden to the government of India, to define our politics for us? Is that what it is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own?”

Gandhi said that Twitter is not neutral as it claims to be. “This is not only patently unfair but they are breaching the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform,” Gandhi further said in his video message.

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The Congress MP said that Twitter is biased towards the government. “We are not allowed to speak in parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was ray of light where we could put what we thought on Twitter. But it is obvious now that Twitter is not an objective neutral platform,” he said.

In its defence, Twitter stated: “The Twitter Rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone on our service. We have taken proactive action on several hundred Tweets that posted an image that violated our rules and may continue to do so in line with our range of enforcement options. Certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and our aim is always to protect individuals’ privacy and safety. We strongly encourage everyone on the service to familiarise themselves with the Twitter Rules and report anything they believe is in violation.”

Twitter claimed it locked Rahul Gandhi’s account after a complaint from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.