As Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's Twitter follower count has now reached 20 million, the Congress on Monday said the increase in the number of Rahul Gandhi's Twitter followers came after his letter to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, which proves that there was some kind of a freeze on his follower count, "guided by an external influence on Twitter".
In a letter, dated December 27, Rahul Gandhi complained that his Twitter reach appeared to have become limited. Giving a comparison with other Twitter accounts including that of PM Modi, Union home minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Rahul Gandhi showed that those accounts were gaining followers.
"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 In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times," Rahul Gandhi said accusing Twitter of "unwitting complicty" in curbing free speech.
{{/usCountry}}"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 In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times," Rahul Gandhi said accusing Twitter of "unwitting complicty" in curbing free speech.
{{/usCountry}}Twitter denied the accusation of any pressure and said it removes millions of accounts each week for violating Twitter guidelines.
“As part of our ongoing and global efforts to encourage healthy conversation on Twitter, every part of the service matters. Follower counts are a visible feature, and we want everyone to have confidence that the numbers are meaningful and accurate. Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and spam. We fight spam and malicious automation strategically and at scale with machine learning tools, and as part of those consistent and ongoing efforts to ensure a healthy service and credible accounts, follower counts can and do fluctuate," it had said.