Former Congress president and senior leader Rahul Gandhi today slammed Twitter for suspending his account while accusing the social media giant of "interfering in our political process" and undermining the country's democratic system.
In a statement issued on Friday (August 13), he said that Twitter is meddling with the country's democratic process. Over seven Twitter handles of Congress and 23 of its leaders have been barred on the platform for allegedly exposing the identity of the Dalit girl who was raped and murdered in Delhi.
Gandhi launched a fierce attack on Twitter, claiming that it was depriving his millions of followers of the right to an opinion. He further questioned if Indians should allow companies to determine "our politics" simply because they are obliged to the Indian government.
"This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi. This is not you know simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That's what you are doing."
"It is clear that Twitter is not a neutral or objective platform. It's an unbalanced platform. It is a biased platform. It's something that listens to what the government of the day says," stated Rahul in a YouTube video message titled "Twitter's Dangerous Game".
“A company is making its business to define our politics and as a politician, I don't like that," he added.
Also Read: Explained: The reason behind Twitter blocking Congress & its leader’s account, What next?
He claims that the decision to block Congress leaders including him is not only unjust but also violates the idea of Twitter as a neutral platform. "And for investors, this is a really dangerous thing," he warned, "because choosing sides in the class battle has consequences for Twitter."
"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.
In the meantime, in a show of support for the party's leader, several Congress leaders have changed their Twitter handles to Rahul Gandhi's name and photo.
Twitter has stated that its rules are "judiciously and impartially applied to everyone" and that it has taken "proactive action on several hundred tweets that included an image that violated our Rules."
The National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights apparently informed the company about specific content on the platform that purportedly disclosed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim's (and a minor's) parents, said company.