Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a letter to Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal has said that his handle has not had any new followers since it was briefly suspended in August 2021. He alleged that the social media site has been “unwittingly complicit” in curbing free speech in India.
Gandhi's account was frozen after he tweeted about meeting the family of a dalit rape victim. He said that since the incident, his average monthly follower count has “fallen to nearly zero”.
He wrote to Parag on December 27 and the letter accessed by The Wall Street Journal says that the government is trying to suppress his reach on the platform.
"I am writing to you on behalf of more than a billion Indians to not allow Twitter to become a pawn in the destruction of the idea of India," wrote Gandhi.
The letter includes comparisons of Twitter followers of four top Indian politicians—Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, fellow Congress leader Shashi Tharoor and himself.
According to the data, Gandhi had an average of about four lakh new followers in the first seven months of 2021 before dropping steeply in the following months. While September showed a negative figure, October and November had only 2,380 and 2,788 new followers respectively.
"Perhaps not so coincidentally, it was precisely during these months that I raised the plight of a rape victim's family in Delhi, stood in solidarity with farmers and fought the government on many other human rights issues. In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times," wrote Gandhi.
"I have been reliably, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by 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 Government ones, which had tweeted similar photos of the same people. None of those accounts were blocked. My account was singularly targeted," he added.
WSJ notes that a Twitter spokesperson declined to comment on the issue but said that follower counts fluctuate and that millions of accounts are removed every week for violating Twitter's policies.
Y.B. Srivatsa, in charge of Gandhi's digital communication, responded, "This is neither a fully explanatory nor a satisfactory response... The chronology of events does not corroborate Twitter's claims.”
