Witter locks Cong, ts leaders’ accounts
The Congress ed on Thursday that the ’s official Twitter handle as as that of a large number of eaders and workers have blocked by the microblogwebsite, which justified the n saying it has been done iolating rules. The developt comes close on the heels of locking of Congress leader ul Gandhi’s Twitter handle he shared pictures of the ly of a nine-year-old alleged -and-murder victim in Delhi week in violation of laws. witter, on its part, said the king of the accounts of sevcongress leaders, including of Gandhi, was done to prondividual privacy and safety they posted images that vioits rules. The chief spokeson of the party, Randeep ewala, said the Narendra i government will not be to suppress their voice by atening Twitter. ow much will you scare ter at the behest of the e? This is not just an issue edom of speech, but it is the e of raising the voice of a Valmiki Dalit girl for justice bringing it before the countill justice is given to the girl, we will continue to this voice,” he said. “The i government cannot cowy suppress our voice by atening Twitter,” Surjewala reporters. n Instagram, the Congress “Twitter India has locked fficial handle of the principposition party. This is an ecedented attack on the
Avoice 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 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,” Gupta said.
The Twitter accounts of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretaries Surjewala, K C Venugopal, 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.
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.