'Twitter Is Biased, Media Is Controlled': Rahul Gandhi Fumes Over Congress' Locked Accounts

Rahul Gandhi's official account was blocked by Twitter for sharing images of the family of a nine-year-old alleged rape-and-murder victim in Delhi last week in violation of laws.

Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi/ File Image

New Delhi: Fumed over blocked Twitter handle, congress leader Rahul said criticised the microblogging platform calling it "biased" and accused it of "listening to what the Government of the day says."

In a video statement issued on Friday morning, the Congress leader said, "By shutting down my Twitter they are interfering in our political process. A company is making its business to define our politics. And as a politician I don't like that. This is an attack on the democratic structure of the country. This is not an attack on Rahul Gandhi, this is not simply shutting Rahul Gandhi down."

Slamming the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Central government, Gandhi said Democracy in under attack as people are not allowed to have an opinion and raise their voice.

"Our democracy is under attack. We are not allowed to speak in Parliament. The media is controlled. And I thought there was a ray of light where we could put what we thought on Twitter. But obviously, that's not the case," Rahul Gandhi said.

He went on to say that his followers are being denied the right to have an opinion.

"I have 19-20 million followers. You are denying them the right to an opinion. That’s what you are doing. So this is not only patently unfair this is their breaching the idea that Twitter is a neutral platform. And for the investors this is a very dangerous thing because taking sides in the political contest has repercussions for Twitter. "

Gandhi accused the US based social media platform of being a biased platform instead of a neutral, objective platform.

"As Indians, we have to ask the question: are we going to allow companies just because they are beholden to the Government of India to define our politics for us? Is that what this is going to come to? Or are we going to define our politics on our own? That's the real question here," Gandhi added.

His official Twitter account was locked out for sharing images of the family of a nine-year-old alleged rape-and-murder victim in Delhi last week in violation of laws.

Irked by the action, Gandhi took to photo-sharing social media platform Instagram and shared a few notes with the caption ‘daro mat… satyameva jayate’ (don’t fear...truth alone triumphs). He said he was guilty if fighting for justice for a rape and murder victim is a crime. "If showing compassion and empathy is a crime. I am guilty."