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U’khand Congress leader Harish Rawat says his Twitter account among those locked
In Delhi, the Congress on Thursday hit out at the government for “scuttling free speech” and said the party’s Twitter account and accounts of several of its leaders were temporarily locked
Former Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat and lawmaker Qazi Nizamuddin are among the Congress leaders whose Twitter accounts have been temporarily locked over “violation of rules”.
In a Facebook post, Rawat, who heads the Congress’s election campaign committee for the 2022 Uttarakhand assembly elections, said efforts were being made to silence him. He accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of suppressing freedom of expression. “I had put out a tweet in support of Rahul Gandhi with the hashtag Mai Bhi Rahul while mentioning a Dalit family, which lost their daughter to a heinous rape incident (in Delhi).” He added Twitter locked his account and asked him to delete the tweet to get it unlocked.
Also Read | Cong handles locking row: Twitter says rules enforced judiciously, impartially
“... our rights are being snatched. Is BJP afraid of Rahul Gandhi trending on social media?” asked Rawat.
Nizamuddin said his account was locked after he tweeted in support of Gandhi on August 8. “Twitter has locked my account also because I too supported Rahul Gandhi against exploitation of Dalits and women,” he said in a Facebook post.
In Delhi, the Congress on Thursday hit out at the government for “scuttling free speech” and said the party’s Twitter account and accounts of several of its leaders were temporarily locked for sharing a photograph of the family of a nine-year-old rape victim.
Twitter insisted it enforces its rules judiciously and impartially and added it has taken proactive action over several hundred tweets that posted the image in violation of its rules.
Twitter said the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) alerted it about the specific content on the platform that allegedly revealed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim and her parents. It added the matter was reviewed in line with Twitter rules as well as the concerns expressed as per Indian law.
Congress has been at loggerheads with Twitter since Saturday when Rahul Gandhi’s account was temporarily locked. It earlier claimed the account was suspended before clarifying the account was temporarily locked.
