Twitter is biased, only listens to govt: Rahul
NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday accused social media company Twitter of being “a biased platform” that “listens to what the government says”, calling restrictions on his and his party colleagues’ accounts as interference with India’s political process.
Gandhi’s statement, issued in a video uploaded to Youtube, came after nearly 5,000 Twitter accounts including his, the party’s official handle, and multiple senior leaders’ was temporarily blocked for sharing a photograph that included the parents of an alleged rape victim.
“This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country,” Gandhi said in the statement.
“A company is making its business to define our politics,” he said warning investors that “taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter.”
The company said on Thursday it was enforcing its terms of use – Indian law too prohibits the identification of victims of a sexual crime or of any material that can lead to their identity becoming known – but the party has accused it of bias by pointing to similar images of “a government body” that did not lead to account restrictions.
“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 alleged, saying Twitter was previously “a ray of light” as it provided space for people to put out their opinions.
On Friday, Twitter reiterated a statement it released a day before. The company said it enforces its rules judiciously and impartially.
“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,” a Twitter spokesperson said. “Certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and our aim is always to protect individuals’ privacy and safety. We strongly encourage everyone on the service to familiarise themselves with the Twitter Rules and report anything they believe is in violation.”
Twitter admitted that it was alerted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) about Gandhi’s tweet which revealed the victim’s identity. It added that it reviewed the tweet against Twitter rules and policies, as well as the concerns expressed as a matter of the Indian law.
The NCPCR has moved the Delhi High Court over the issue.
Gandhi stuck to his guns on Friday, saying the locking of his account was not an attack on him but on his 20 million followers.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (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.