Congress claims 5,000 accounts blocked; Twitter justifies why

The Congress has alleged that its official Twitter handle and that of more than 5,000 accounts of party leaders and workers have been blocked by the microblogging website. Twitter has, however, justified the action saying the accounts have been locked for violating rules.

• Rahul Gandhi's account locked on August 7

• Congress party’s official account locked on August 12

• More than 5,000 accounts blocked, says Congress Twitter says accounts violated Indian laws and Twitter’s own rules

• NCPCR also asked for action on these tweets for violating POCSO Act

• Congress leaders blame PM Modi for Twitter’s action

The development comes close on the heels of the blocking of 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.

Twitter, on its part, said the blocking of the accounts of several Congress leaders, including that of Gandhi, was done to protect individual privacy and safety after they posted images that violated its rules.

The Congress accused the website of acting under pressure from the government.

Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused Twitter of being biased and interfering in the country's political process by blocking his account.

In a strong attack, Gandhi said Twitter was denying his millions of followers the right to an opinion and termed it as an attack on the democratic structure of the country.

"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," he charged in a video message posted on social media.

"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," he said.

"This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country. 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," Gandhi said in his video message.

The chief spokesperson of the party, 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.

Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi accused Twitter of colluding with the government to stifle democracy.

'Is Twitter following its own policy for the suspension of Congress leaders' accounts or the Modi government's? Why hadn't it locked the account of SC commission that had tweeted similar photos before any of our leaders did? 'By locking Congress leaders' accounts en masse, Twitter is blatantly colluding with the stifling of democracy by the BJP government in India,' she tweeted.

Congress blames PM Modi

Priyanka Gandhi also said the real issue is the 'brutal rape and forced cremation' of the Dalit girl in the heart of the national capital and questioned the prime minister's silence on it.

'The real issue is the Delhi Police disallowing the lodging of an FIR for 15 hours. @narendramodi why have you not uttered a single word about this heinous crime against an innocent child?

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.

'Twitter is clearly acting under the 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,' he said.

The Twitter accounts of All India Congress Committee general secretaries Surjewala, K C Venugopal, Harish Rawat, Ajay Maken, the party's whip in the Lok Sabha Manickam Tagore, Assam in-charge and former Union minister Jitendra Singh and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev have also been blocked, the party said.

Rawat said at a time when the country is just three days away from celebrating the Independence Day, the freedom of expression of Opposition leaders is being snatched away.

'Have Twitter India and the Constitution of India become so weak in a democracy?' the former Uttarakhand chief minister asked on Facebook.

Congress leader Sachin Pilot accused the Centre of suppressing the voice of Opposition leaders.

'The central government is betraying the countrymen by suppressing the voice of the Opposition on issues related to the country,' he said in a tweet.

Twitter says it is impartial

When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson said the company's rules are enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone in its service.

'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. Certain types of private information carry higher risks than others and our aim is always to protect individual privacy and safety,' he said.

According to Twitter, if a tweet is found to be in violation of its rules and is not deleted by the account holder, the microblogging platform hides it behind a notice and the account remains locked until the said tweet is removed or the appeal is successfully processed.

The US-based company said it was alerted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) about specific content on the platform that revealed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim, who is a minor, and her parents. The said content was reviewed against Twitter's rules and policies as well as the concerns expressed as a matter of Indian law.

Rahul Gandhi had tweeted pictures with the family of the nine-year-old victim of alleged rape and murder in Delhi last week.

The NCPCR took cognisance of his tweet and directed Twitter to act against his account for violating the privacy of a minor victim, mandated by the laws of the land.

Congress leaders changed their Twitter handle names to Rahul Gandhi with some of them even replacing their display pictures on the website with that of the former party chief.

The Trinamool Congress, too, has condemned the action taken by Twitter against Congress leaders.

'What's going on? We strongly condemn the blocking of the accounts of @INCIndia and senior leaders of the Congress party,' Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Derek O'Brien said in a tweet.

What led to this?

Meanwhile, Business Standard reported that a social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar had filed a case in Delhi High Court seeking direction on NCPCR to take appropriate action against Rahul Gandhi for tweeting pictures that allegedly disclosed sensitive details and published photographs of the family of a nine-year old allegedly gangraped and murdered in Delhi Cantonment.

Rahul Gandhi's account was locked on August 7. The case hearing was held on Wednesday and is listed for September 27.

On Thursday, the Congress posted on Instagram a screenshot of a tweet posted on August 8, which was mentioned as the cause for violating Twitter rules.

What next?

Tagging Twitter India, the Congress had said in the tweet: “@TwitterIndia lock our accounts, we challenge you. Nothing will stop us from fighting for justice and exposing the truth.”

Twitter said the tweet violated its rules for posting private information. “You may not publish or post other people’s private information without their express authorisation and permission,” it said.

This is not the first instance when the microblogging site has been in the center of a storm. In June, Twitter had locked the account of former information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad over copyright violation in an old tweet.

Twitter affirmed that the deletion of tweets and blocking of some accounts was done in line with Indian laws and Twitter’s policy on enforcement of laws of the country in which it operates.

The Indian Express reported that Twitter’s enforcement action policy states, “If an account’s profile or media content is not compliant with our policies, we may make it temporarily unavailable and require that the violator edit the media or information in their profile to come into compliance. We also explain which policy their profile or media content has violated.”

Now, all the tweets which have been marked by Twitter as objectionable and violative of the law of the land will have to be deleted from the Congress party’s official account and the other leaders’/workers’ accounts, or will remain not be visible to users on the platform.

Twitter will also inform these users via e-mail about the nature of the violations done through their accounts, and ask them to delete the tweets or face action as per the policy of the platform, the Indian Express report added. Inputs: PTI, ANI, Indian Express, Business Standard

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