Twitter biased,interfering with India’s politics: Rahul Gandhi

Congress leader and MP Rahul Gandhi  has hit out at microblogging site Twitter for temporarily blocking his account and said that the company is interfering with India’s political process and it is an attack on the democratic structure. Gandhi on Friday questioned Twitter’s neutrality while calling it “a biased platform” which “listens to what the government says”. In a video statement, Rahul Gandhi said on Friday, “By shutting down my Twitter, they are interfering with our political process. A company is making it its business to define our politics. And as a politician, I don't like that.” I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion, said Rahul Gandhi while attacking Twitter.

“This is not only unfair, it is also breaching the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform. And for the investors, this is a very dangerous thing because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter,” said Rahul Gandhi.Gandhi said Twitter was “a ray of light” as it provided space for putting out their opinions. “But it is obvious now that is not the case. Twitter is not a neutral platform.” The criticism came a day after Twitter temporarily locked nearly 5,000 accounts, including those of several senior leaders of the party and its official handle after they shared a photograph of Gandhi’s meeting a minor rape victim’s family in Delhi. Gandhi’s account was locked on Saturday for the same reason.

In response to Congress’s criticism, a Twitter spokesperson on Thursday maintained they enforce rules “judiciously and impartially” for everyone. “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.” Congress and Twitter have been at loggerheads since the company locked Gandhi’s account.BJP spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal rejected the suggestion that Twitter is acting under government pressure. “Twitter even suspended former information technology minister (Ravi Shankar Prasad)’s handle (over alleged copyright infringement in June) too. When the government was trying to fix the accountability of the social media giant and regulate it, Congress opposed the action. For anything and everything, they blame the Modi government.” Agarwal asked Congress to support the government’s efforts to regulate tech companies and to hold them accountable.