Twitter, on Saturday, restored the account of Rahul Gandhi, alongside those of the Congress and its other leaders, amid ongoing friction between the social media platform and the party over its members sharing pictures of the family of an alleged rape victim.
“Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs),” the Congress account tweeted after it was unlocked.
Gandhi and Congress’ accounts were temporarily suspended last week after he tweeted pictures of the family of the nine-year-old victim of alleged rape and murder in Northwest Delhi. Twitter deemed it a violation of its rules.
Sources say the Twitter accounts of some of the party leaders who had shared the same pictures have also been restored.
“Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account has been unlocked,” a party functionary said.
Neutrality debate
After the restoration of the accounts, the Congress party and some party leaders ran the hashtag “Speak Up against Twitter’s hypocrisy”.
“The people of India demand accountability from Twitter. We demand that your restore the locked accounts that were simply demanding justice for a rape victim and stop interfering in our politics because of your fear of the Modi government,” a Congress leader said, a statement shared by his colleagues on Twitter.
“Our demands from Twitter: Stop suppressing the voice of Indians under the pressure of Modi government. Don’t be afraid of BJP and restore all accounts that demanded justice,” said a statement tweeted by many Congress leaders.
The former Congress chief a strong outburst on Friday accusing Twitter of “interfering in the national political process” and said shutting down of his handle amounted to an “attack on the country’s democratic structure”.
Gandhi, in a YouTube video titled “Twitter’s dangerous game”, alleged that it was not a neutral and objective platform and was “beholden to the government”. Questioning Twitter’s action, Gandhi said the company was denying millions of his followers the right to an opinion, which was unfair.
“It’s obvious now that Twitter is actually not a neutral, objective platform. It is a biased platform. It’s something that listens to what the government of the day says,” Gandhi had alleged.
In the wake of the friction with the Congress, Twitter has transferred its India head, Manish Maheshwari to the US.
While the company did not specify any reason for the change, it said Maheshwari will move to the US as Senior Director (Revenue Strategy and Operations) and focus on new markets in his new role.