India's Rahul Gandhi Accuses Twitter of 'Curbing Free & Fair Speech'

Last year, in August, former Congress President Rahul Gandhi's Twitter account was suspended for several days. Gandhi claimed that his reach and followers has reduced drastically since then. With 19.5 million followers on Twitter, Rahul Gandhi is one of the most-followed politicians on social media.

Congress parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi has written to Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, alleging that the micro-blogging site is unknowingly complicit in curbing free and fair speech in India.

"I want to bring your attention to what I believe is Twitter's unwitting complicity in curbing free and fair speech in India… I have been reliable, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence my voice," Gandhi wrote in his letter on 27 December.

He has also said that a shadow ban on him restricts his tweets and the number of people who can follow him.

In August, Gandhi's account was temporarily blocked after he shared a photograph and a video with the parents of a nine-year-old Dalit girl who was allegedly raped and murdered.

Gandhi later revealed that he had obtained permission from the girl's parents to post their picture.

Twitter blocked Gandhi's post in India, though it remains accessible outside the country.

The Wall Street Journal has independently established, using two social media analytics companies, Emplifi and Social Blade, that Gandhi, on an average gained nearly 400,000 new users per month from January to July 2021.

This figure sharply dipped after the suspension of his account. From September to December, he has gained less than 2,500 followers per month.

On Thursday, targeting Gandhi over his letter to Twitter, Bharataiya Janata Party's information and technology department head Amit Malviya tweeted that Congress parliamentarian is not getting an audience, neither in the real world nor virtually.

Rahul Gandhi has written to Twitter complaining that his followers count has not increased since his account was temporarily suspended in 2021…

Rahul doesn’t get audience in the real world and now virtual world too!

What next? Write to EC and complaint for not getting votes?

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) January 27, 2022