New Delhi:
Twitter is “unknowingly complicit” in curbing free speech in India, senior congressional leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to company CEO Parag Agrawal last month, alleging a government campaign to suppress his reach on the platform. , according to a letter seen by DailyExpertNews.
In a Dec. 27 letter that included an analysis of data from his Twitter account, as well as comparisons with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Secretary Amit Shah and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Mr Gandhi said that while he averaged about 4 lakh added followers for the first seven months of 2021, growth came to an abrupt halt for several months after an eight-day suspension in August last year.
During the same period, other politicians maintained the number of new followers.
“Perhaps not coincidentally, it was precisely during these months that I raised the plight of the family of a rape victim in Delhi, showed solidarity with farmers and fought the government on many other human rights issues. In fact, a video of me Promising farmers that the three infamous agricultural laws will be repealed is one of the most watched videos on Twitter posted by a political leader in India lately,” Gandhi wrote.
“I am trustworthy, albeit discreet, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under tremendous pressure from the government to silence my voice. My account was even blocked for a few days for no legitimate reason. There were many other Twitter handles, including that of the government, which had tweeted similar photos of the same people. None of those accounts had been blocked. My account was a specific target,” he added.
“I am writing to you on behalf of more than a billion Indians to prevent Twitter from becoming a pawn in the destruction of the idea of India,” Gandhi said.
A Twitter spokesperson quoted by The Wall Street Journal declined to comment on Mr Gandhi’s allegations, but said the number of followers fluctuated as the company uses machine learning to fight spam and manipulation, adding that millions of accounts are deleted every week for violating Twitter policies against activities such as malicious automation.
However, the Congress rejected the explanation with Srivatsa YB, who is responsible for digital communications for Mr Gandhi’s office, telling the paper: “This is neither a fully explanatory nor a satisfactory response… The chronology of events confirms Twitter’s claims don’t.”
Twitter and other social networking platforms such as Facebook are coming under increasing scrutiny in India, and the company had raised widespread concerns last year about “the potential threat to freedom of expression” in the country and “the use of police harassment tactics.” with the government about the new rules for the sector. The statement was prompted by a visit by the Delhi Police to its offices over a political altercation involving the Congress and the government.
Read the full letter here: