Twitter has unblocked the official account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and his party, company officials informed, on 14 August 2021. These accounts were suspended following over a certain tweet on the alleged rape and murder of a nine-year-old girl in Delhi, on 1 August 2021. The accounts were locked after the Congress leader posted a photograph of himself with the parents of the victim, saying the family deserves justice.
The accounts were reinstated after the micro-blogging site reviewed the formal consent of those present in the picture, the social media giant informed by way of an emailed statement. These consent forms were submitted with Twitter by the Congress leader. The tweets have, however, been withheld in India, the company declared.
Although accessible globally, the tweet has been withheld in India in compliance of laws the prohibit disclosing the identities of children and victims of sexual assault, a notification from Twitter read.
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The restoration of these accounts has also been confirmed by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala.
On 13 August 2021, Rahul Gandhi had lashed out on Twitter for blocking the accounts, claiming that the platform is involved in playing partisan politics. Twitter, however, denied the allegation, with a company spokesperson saying that the rules have been “enforced judiciously and impartially.”
Over the last few months, Twitter has been in a tussle with the Indian government for allegedly not complying with the country’s new IT guidelines, that require the firm to hire compliance officers by for regulating the content shared on the platform.
Read also: Twitter unlocks account of Congress, Rahul Gandhi (Ld)
Notably, Twitter’s India head, Manish Maheshwari has been assigned a a new internal role in the US. Recently, an internal staff memo of the company had thanked him for his work in the country during “extraordinarily challenging times.”
