Twitter locked Rahul’s account, alleges Cong
NEW DELHI: The Congress said on Saturday Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was temporarily locked and that it was following due process to restore access, even as the social media company denied earlier reports that the leader’s account was “temporarily suspended”.
Earlier in the day, the Congress said Gandhi’s Twitter account was temporarily suspended. “Shri @Rahulgandhi’s Twitter account has been temporarily suspended & due process is being followed for its restoration...,” the Congress’ official handle posted on Twitter. It, however, clarified later that the account was temporarily locked.
“He (Gandhi) was not able to post on his page since morning,” said a Congress functionary familiar with the matter.
According to Twitter, the account was never “suspended” as such an action would entail making the account inaccessible across the globe. HT reached out to the company to check whether the account was temporarily “locked” but did not immediately receive a response. The social media company has a range of enforcement polices for
content that violates its terms of service or in response to a properly scoped request from an authorised entity in a country.
Saturday’s development came after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asked the Delhi Police and Twitter on Wednesday to take action against the leader over a photograph he posted after meeting the family of a nine-year-old girl who was killed after allegedly being raped.
The child rights body said the Twitter post violated the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection
of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act. Gandhi met the girl’s family on Wednesday and assured his support.
According to Twitter’s enforcement page, it can restrict a person who has violated Twitter rules from posting until the tweet in question is deleted. “When we determine that a Tweet violated the Twitter Rules, we require the violator to remove it before they can Tweet again... They will then need to go through the process of removing the violating Tweet or appealing our review...,” it says.