The Congress dared Twitter India to lock its accounts, a day after the social media company locked party leader Rahul Gandhi's handle over a post of his meeting the family of a nine-year-old Dalit girl, who died after an alleged sexual assault. "@TwitterIndia lock our accounts, we challenge you. Nothing will stop us from fighting for justice & exposing the truth," the opposition party posted along with hashtag #मैं_भी_Rahul or I am Rahul.
The opposition party also tweeted the photograph of Rahul Gandhi meeting the family of the nine-year-old Dalit girl, who died after being raped by a priest and three other men at a crematorium near Delhi Cantonment. On Saturday, the Congress said that Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was "temporarily locked" after the social media company denied the party's earlier claim that the leader’s account was “temporarily suspended”.
"Shri @RahulGandhi's Twitter account has been temporarily suspended & due process is being followed for its restoration. Until then, he will stay connected with you all through his other SM platforms & continue to raise his voice for our people & fight for their cause. Jai Hind!" the Congress posted on its official Twitter handle. Tagging its previous tweet, the Congress later tweeted, "The account has been temporarily locked."
Before this, Twitter took down a controversial post of Rahul Gandhi with the photograph of him meeting the family of the girl earlier this week. The social media company said that Rahul Gandhi's account violated its rules against posting private information.
People familiar with the matter said that some features of Gandhi's account have been temporarily limited. He could browse Twitter and send direct messages to his followers but he won't be able to tweets, retweet, follow, fleet or like, they said. They added that Twitter has communicated that all the features of the account could be restored in 12 hours once the tweet violating its rules is deleted by him. Rahul Gandhi met the girl's family members last week and assured them of justice.
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) asked the Delhi Police and Twitter to take action over Gandhi over the post, saying it violates the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (Pocso) Act.
