File photo of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Highlights
- Rahul Gandhi accused Twitter of "interfering in our political process"
- "This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country," he said
- Twitter has said its rules are enforced impartially for everyone"
Rahul Gandhi today ripped into Twitter for locking his account and accused the social media platform of "interfering in our political process" and attacking the democratic structure of the country.
"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," the Congress MP said in a video statement released on YouTube titled "Twitter's Dangerous Game".
"This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country," he said.
"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? Is that what it is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own?"
The Twitter handles of Rahul Gandhi and many other Congress leaders have been locked over a post sharing photographs that showed the Congress leader interacting with the family of the 9-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and killed in Delhi last week.
"This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi, this is not simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have 19-20 million followers; you are denying them the right to an opinion. This is not only patently unfair but they are breaching the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform," Mr Gandhi said in his video.
Taking sides in the political context has repercussions for Twitter, he warned, calling it "a very dangerous thing for investors".
"Our democracy is under attack. We are not allowed to speak in parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was ray of light where we could put what we thought on Twitter. But it is obvious now that Twitter is not an objective neutral platform; it is a biased platform, something that listens to what the government of the day says," the Congress leader said.
Several Congress leaders have changed the name and photo on their Twitter handles to Rahul Gandhi's in a show of support for the party leader.
Twitter has said its rules are "enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone", and that it took "proactive action on several hundred tweets that posted an image that violated our Rules".
The company said it was alerted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights "about specific content on our platform that allegedly revealed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim's (and a minor's) parents".
A "locked" Twitter account means the user cannot tweet, retweet or like any posts and "can only send Direct Messages to followers".