Twitter on Thursday blocked the official account of India’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress, in a move that the ruling government has claimed was an “act of respecting the country’s law.”
Following months of tension, Twitter recently began to comply with India’s new social media regulations that make platforms more accountable to requests for removal of content deemed by authorities as unlawful.
On Saturday, the social media platform suspended the official account of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, and at least 5,000 Twitter handles of the party’s leaders have since been blocked, for what the social media giant said were “violations of its rules.”
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate accused Twitter of acting under pressure from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
“To ban the principal opposition party is undemocratic, immoral and illegal. This is wrong and it’s an attack on our freedom of expression,” she said in a tweet, alleging that the platform was “under fear of reprisal from the government.”
But Twitter said in a statement that its rules are “enforced judiciously and impartially for everyone.
“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.”
The government has also denied interference.
“It is Twitter’s responsibility, too, to respect Indian law,” BJP spokesperson Sudesh Verma told Arab News. “Law is equal for all. We don’t run Twitter.
“I wish the BJP government was so powerful that international organizations would listen to what it says,” he said, blaming Gandhi for tweeting “immoral content” which led to the accounts being blocked.
Gandhi’s removed post on Twitter showed photos of his meeting with the parents of a nine year old who was raped and murdered.
Under Indian law, it is illegal to share photos of victims or their relatives in such cases.
“Rahul Gandhi crossed the law and did something which is also considered immoral. A case has already been lodged against him,” Verma said.
However, in a similar case last year which saw BJP leaders post images of another rape victim and her family, there was no action from Twitter.
“I understand Twitter’s position that it has no choice but block accounts that violate Indian law and Twitter policy,” another Congress leader, Sashi Tharoor, said in a tweet, but added that automatically locking accounts is an “extreme step that stifles the freedom of expression of Indian citizens.
“The perception of double standards makes matters worse,” Tharoor said, giving the examples in which Twitter did not react to the same kind of content shared by the BJP.
Twitter had earlier expressed concerns over the government’s handling of its employees when Delhi police raided the company’s office in May after the platform labeled a tweet from Sambit Patra, a BJP spokesperson, as “manipulated media.”
Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, a journalist and author of “The Real Face of Facebook in India,” told Arab News: “Twitter seems to be buckling under pressure from the present government.
“There has been a running battle between Twitter and the government of India for several weeks now and the government has come out with a series of statements that have been very critical of Twitter’s actions,” he said. “Certainly, Twitter seems to be succumbing to the pressure.”