NEW DELHI: Congress member Rahul Gandhi has written to Twitter that the microblogging platform is limiting his ability to find new followers under pressure from the government of India, citing that his following has virtually frozen ever since his account was briefly locked in August 2021.
Rahul wrote to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on December 27, alleging that the platform was probably working under pressure from the Modi government.
As per the details provided to Twitter, the Congress MP pointed out that he was gaining new followers at the rate of over 2.3 lakh per month, which even went up to 6.5 lakh on certain months. However, since August 2021, his new follower account had come down to roughly 2,500 per month and his total following of 19.5 million has remained virtually frozen during this period.
Rahul’s Twitter account ran into a controversy in August 2021 when he tweeted a picture of the family of a rape victim in Delhi. Following complaints from BJP members, Twitter held that Rahul had violated laws by posting that picture and his account was locked for around eight days. While the account was unfrozen later, Congress said it has since witnessed serious obstacles in the form of its ability to increase influence on the platform that has become a key instrument in public communication and political campaign.
“You have an enormous responsibility to ensure that Twitter does not actively help in the growth of authoritarianism in India,” Rahul wrote to Agrawal.
He alleged that there is a complete state capture of traditional media, and social media has become more important in raising peoples issues and holding the government to account. “The ideological battle between liberal democracy and authoritarianism across the world is being shaped on social media platforms. This places a huge responsibility on those that are at the helm of companies like Twitter,” he wrote.