Twitter unlocks accounts of Rahul, others
NEW DELHI: Twitter on Saturday restored the official accounts of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and several others, a week after nearly 5,000 handles associated with the party were temporarily suspended for sharing a photograph of the parents of a nineyear-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and murdered in the national capital.
The accounts were restored after the former Congress chief submitted a consent letter by the parents of the alleged victim, authorising him to use the image, a Twitter spokesperson who did not wish to be named said.
“Satyameva Jayate (truth alone triumphs),” the Congress tweeted in its first reaction after its official handle was unlocked.
Confirming the development, Vipin Yadav, national coordinator of Congress’ social media department, said almost all the handles belonging to the party and its leaders were unlocked by Twitter on Saturday.
On Friday, the victim’s mother told journalists that they have no objection to Gandhi tweeting their image as what he did was in good faith.
As part of the appeal process, according to the Twitter spokesperson cited above, Gandhi submitted a copy of the formal consent/authorisation letter to use the referenced image via its India Grievance Channel. “… and based on the written consent provided by the people depicted in the image, our teams initiated the necessary due diligence... the process to review… We have updated our enforcement action based on the consent provided by the people depicted in the image… and the account access has been restored,” the official said.
The spokesperson added that the tweet in which Gandhi shared pictures of the family shall be “withheld in India” and will be invisible to users in the country.
“As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in accordance with valid legal provisions under the Indian law(s). The withholding actions are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be unlawful and remains available elsewhere,” the spokesperson said.
Gandhi’s account was locked by the micro-blogging site on August 7 after he tweeted a photograph of his meeting with the alleged rape victim’s family on August 4.
On August 9, Twitter informed the Delhi High Court that the Congress leader’s tweet was in violation of the platform’s policy.
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.