Twitter on Saturday unlocked the official account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, a day after he accused the microblogging site of “bias” and termed the blocking of his account an “attack on the country’s democratic structure”.
The move comes a week after Rahul’s handle was temporarily suspended for tweeting pictures of the family of a nine-year-old Dalit girl, who was allegedly raped and murdered in northwest Delhi.
In a video statement on YouTube titled ‘Twitter’s dangerous game’, Gandhi alleged the site was not a neutral or objective platform and was “beholden to the government”.
“This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi. This is not, you know, simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down. I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That’s what you are doing,” Rahul had said.
Twitter had locked Rahul Gandhi’s account after it received a notice from the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), asking it to act against the Congress leader for tweeting pictures with the family of the victim. The NCPCR had cited the juvenile justice law that mandates the privacy of minor victims.
Twitter later also locked the party’s account and the handles of several of its leaders for tweeting the same pictures as Gandhi.