After a week, Twitter unlocks Rahul’s account

New Delhi: A day after former Congress president Rahul Gandhi accused Twitter of being biased and interfering in India’s democratic system, the microblogging site unlocked his account, along with other leaders of his party which were locked for sharing a picture of the parents of a nine-year-old alleged rape and murder victim from north- east Delhi.
The locking of Rahul Gandhi’s account had attracted a sharp criticism from the Congress and many leaders had posted the same picture for which Rahul Gandhi’s account was locked last week. In responce, Twitter locked all such accounts, citing the same reason of policy violation. The Congress’ official Twitter handle was also locked.
On Saturday morning, Twitter started the process of unlocking those accounts, including that of Rahul Gandhi. A Twitter spokesperson said that “Mr Gandhi had submitted a copy of the formal consent or authorisation letter to use the specific image”. The company had followed the due diligence process to review the appeal “in order to protect the safety and privacy of the affected individuals. The tweet is now withheld in India and the account access has been restored. As explained in our Country Withheld Policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in accordance with valid legal provisions under the Indian law(s),” said a Twitter spokesperson.
The Congress has termed the unlocking of accounts as the victory of truth and tweeted “Satymev Jayate” from its official Twitter handle. Before this, Rahul Gandhi on Friday issued a video statement over the issue and hit out at Twitter for playing a “dangerous game”. While accusing Twitter of interference in Indian politics, Rahul Gandhi said, “It’s obvious now that Twitter is actually not a neutral, objective platform. It is a biased platform. It’s something that listens to what the government of the day says,” he added.
In another significant development, Twitter has transferred its India head Manish Maheshwari to the US. The company has not given any specific reason for change of guard in India. It said Maheshwari will move to the US as Senior Director (Revenue Strategy and Operations) and focus on new markets in his new role. This change is being viewed in the light of the recent friction with the main Opposition party of India.