Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday launched an all-out attack on the social media giant Twitter for the latter’s decision to block several accounts. Among those blocked by Twitter include Rahul Gandhi himself, the official Twitter handle of the Congress and the top leadership of India’s largest opposition party.
Gandhi released a video on YouTube, where he said, “Our democracy is under attack. We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was a ray of light where we could freely express ourselves on Twitter. But obviously, that’s not the case.”
View this post on Instagram
Gandhi added, “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.
“As Indians we have to ask the question – are we going to allow companies, just because they are beholden to the government of India, to define our politics for us? Is that what it is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own?”
Gandhi warned Twitter investors of the consequences for taking sides in a political contest. He said, “For the investors, this is a very dangerous thing, because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions.”
This is the first time that Gandhi has publicly spoken about Twitter’s decision to lock his account allegedly under pressure from the BJP government. The BJP had accused Gandhi of committing a crime by revealing the identity of the parents of a 9-year-old Dalit rape victim from Delhi. The girl was raped and allegedly burnt alive by a Hindu priest in the heart of Delhi.
Gandhi had met the grieving family before sharing the video of his interaction with them.
Twitter has, meanwhile, locked the accounts of the almost entire top leadership of the Congress, evoking angry reactions from netizens, who felt that this was a brazen attempt to silence the opposition in India. On Thursday, it was revealed that Twitter had also locked the official account of the Congress party.