Friday, 13 August 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Party leaders cry foul, say Twitter acting under Govt pressure
The official Twitter handle of the Congress and that of a large number of its leaders and workers have been blocked by the microblogging platform, which said they have been blocked for violating the rules.
The development comes after twitter blocked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter handle after he shared pictures of the family of a nine-year-old alleged rape-and-murder victim in Delhi last week in violation of laws.
The Twitter accounts of AICC general secretaries KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, party’s whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore, Assam in-charge and former Union Minister Jitendra Singh and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev and Surjewala also have been blocked.
Twitter said the blocking of the accounts was done to protect individual privacy and safety after they posted images that violated its rules. The grand old party accused the website of acting against Rahul’s account under pressure from the Government.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the Narendra Modi Government will not be able to suppress their voice by threatening Twitter.
“How much will you scare Twitter at the behest of the police? This is not just an issue of freedom of speech, but it is the issue of raising the voice of a poor Valmiki Dalit girl for justice and bringing it before the country. Till justice is given to the poor girl, we will continue to raise this voice,” he said.
“The Modi Government cannot cowardly suppress our voice by threatening Twitter,” Surjewala told reporters.
On Instagram, the Congress said: “Twitter India has locked the official handle of the principal Opposition party. This is an unprecedented attack on the voice of the people.”
The head of the Congress’s social media department, Rohan Gupta, said the party’s official Twitter handle and around 5,000 accounts of its top leaders and workers have been blocked by the website. He alleged that Twitter is acting against the Opposition party leaders under pressure from the Government.
“Twitter is clearly acting under Government’s pressure as it did not remove the same pictures shared by the Twitter account of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes for a few days,” Gupta said.
AICC Secretary Pranav Jha said only the IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw is to be held responsible for the blocking of several leaders of the grand old party. Later in the day his account was also blocked by Twitter subsequently.
