The Congress on Thursday morning alleged that its Twitter handle had been locked. In a message on its Facebook account, the Congress shared a screenshot of the Twitter notification stating, "Your account has been locked".
The violation cited by Twitter referred to publishing or posting other people's private information without their authorisation.
Interestingly, the party had lashed out at Twitter on Wednesday night for locking the accounts of five leaders—comms-in-charge Randeep Surjewala, MP Manickam Tagore, Assam-in-charge Jitendra Singh, AICC general secretary Ajay Maken and Mahila Congress president Sushmita Dev. The Congress described Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as a "vassal" of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Earlier this week, Twitter had suspended the account of former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi. The action by Twitter came over a controversial post of Gandhi with a picture of him meeting the family of a nine-year-old dalit girl who died here following an alleged sexual assault. Twitter has deemed that the account violated its rules against posting private information.
In a message on Facebook on Thursday, the Congress expressed defiance despite its Twitter handle being locked. “When our leaders were locked up in jails, we were not afraid then, then how will we be afraid to close our Twitter account. We are Congress, this is the message of the people, we will fight, we will keep fighting. If raising voice to get justice to rape victim child is a crime, then we will commit this crime hundred times,” the Congress stated.
Congress general secretary K.C. Venugopal said the issue of temporary suspension of Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account was discussed at the meeting of general secretaries, in-charges and PCC presidents. The party also claimed that the Twitter handle of INC-TV was also suspended this morning. "The atrocious stance is nothing but another instance of anti-SC and anti-women mindset and inherent prejudice of the Modi government as also a violation of freedom of expression by the Twitter India under the diktat of Modi government. All present universally condemned this prejudicial mindset of BJP and decided to take up this matter at all levels," he said in a statement later.
The opposition party had on Sunday alleged that Twitter acted in haste due to "pressure" from the Indian government and was "selective" in removing Rahul Gandhi's tweet and "suspending" his account. "The double standard of Twitter is too obvious as statutory commissions, BJP leaders and those holding statutory offices had put up similar pictures on Twitter on 2nd and 3rd August, two days before Rahulji's visit," Venugopal said on Monday.
