Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Twitter of interfering in India’s political process and described the social media platform as a biased one.
In his first video statement on Twitter blocking his account, Mr. Gandhi said Twitter only listened to the government.
Last week, Twitter blocked his account after he posted the picture of the parents of a 9-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in Delhi.
“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,” Mr Gandhi said in a two-minute video.
It was not just an attack on him but the “democratic structure” of the country as it was denying the right to an opinion for his 19-20 million followers. “Our democracy is under attack. We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was a ray of light where we could put what we thought on Twitter. But obviously, that’s not the case,” he stated.
“It’s obvious now that Twitter is actually not a neutral, objective platform. It’s a biased platform. It’s something that listens to what the government of the day says. 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?” he observed.
‘Dangerous thing for investors’
Mr. Gandhi cautioned that “taking sides in a political contest will have repercussions for Twitter and could be a dangerous thing for investors”.
Since its action against Mr Gandhi last week, Twitter India has blocked thousands of handles associated with the Congress, including the official party handle and over two dozen senior leaders.
In its defence, Twitter said they acted against Mr. Gandhi a after receiving a complaint from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), which has pointed out that posting the picture of the parents of a victim is a violation of Indian law.
However, the Congress said Twitter’s “double standards” as a similar picture of parents had been shared by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) on August 2.
When The Hindu checked the timeline of the NCSC, the offending photograph from August 2 was removed but the account was functional and the last tweet from the verified handle was sent out at August 11:50 a.m. on August 13.
