The Congress party is livid with Twitter these days. It all started with the micro-blogging site temporarily blocking the account of former Congres president Rahul Gandhi for posting a picture of his meeting with the parents of a nine-year-old girl who was allegedly raped and murdered. Accounts of several other Congres leaders were also blocked for sharing the same picture. While Twitter says it had to take action as its policies were violated, Rahul Gandhi has called it "interference" in India's political process. Here we are summing up the entire controversy in 10 points:
1. On August 4, Rahul Gandhi met the relatives of a dalit girl who had allegedly been raped and killed. He expressed his support for them. Following the meeting, Gandhi tweeted a photo of himself with the girl's parents. On August 5, Rahul Gandhi's twitter account was momentarily banned for this.
2.The platform erased the Congress leader's tweet after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights submitted a warning to the microblogging site and urged them to remove it.
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3. Following the deletion of Gandhi's tweet and the temporary locking of his account, other Congress leaders, including Surjewala and Maken, posted the same image, resulting in their accounts being briefly restricted as well.
4.Twitter claims that the deletion of tweets and freezing of accounts is done in line with Indian laws and Twitter's own policy on legal enforcement options in the countries in which it operates.
5. According to twitter, as quoted by Hindustan Times, Gandhi had violated provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offenses (POCSO) Act by uploading an image that included the faces of the Dalit girl's parents. Both regulations require that the victim's name not be divulged.
6. On Instagram, the Congress party's official handle shared an image of a Twitter notification alerting the party that its account had been locked. The Congress Party slammed PM Modi for blocking of Twitter accounts of Congress leaders. Aside from that, the congress underlined the effort done by party members in the past for the people and throughout the independence period.
7. Rohan Gupta, the head of the Congress's social media department, accused Twitter of yielding to government pressure and claimied that it had banned 5,000 accounts belonging to Congress leaders and employees across India.
8. Since Rahul Gandhi's account got momentarily banned, the Congress has been at odds with Twitter. It had previously claimed that the account had been suspended before clarifying the reason behind it getting temporarily disabled.
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9.The NCPCR had previously requested that the Delhi Police and Twitter take action against Gandhi in relation to an image he uploaded after visiting the family of a nine-year-old girl who was died following an alleged sexual assault. It claimed that the picture's posting was illegal.
10. In a video statement on Friday, Rahul Gandhi slammed Twitter for blocking his account and alleged that Twitter was taking sides in the politics of the country. "By shutting down my Twitter they are interfering in our political process," he added.
