New Delhi: Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi came down heavily on Twitter after the microblogging site blocked his account. He alleged that the platform was biased and was interfering with the Indian political process.
“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,” Gandhi said in a recorded video statement. He further said, “This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi. This is not, you know, simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have a 19million-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That’s what you are doing. So this is not only patently unfair, this is their breaching the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform. And for the investors this is a very dangerous thing because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter.”
On Thursday, Congress had informed blocking of its official Twitter handle accompanied by suspension of several other accounts of its party members. Rahul Gandhi’s account came to the row after he shared pictures of the family of the nine-year-old Dalit rape victim in Delhi.
Twitter on its part informed the suspension of several congress leaders and Rahul Gandhi was attempted after their accounts flouted the individual privacy and safety policy setup by the company.