Twitter unlocks Rahul Gandhi’s account, actioned tweet withheld in India
Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was restored on Saturday, a week after being locked for tweeting pictures that allegedly disclosed sensitive details and published photographs of the family of a minor, allegedly a gang-rape victim.
“As part of the appeal process, @RahulGandhi has submitted a copy of the formal consent/authorisation letter to use the referenced image via our India Grievance Channel. We have followed the necessary due diligence process to review the appeal in order to protect the safety and privacy of the affected individuals. We have updated our enforcement action based on the consent provided by the people depicted in the image,” a Twitter spokesperson confirmed.
The Twitter account of the Congress party was also locked on Thursday, for tweeting in support of the image shared by Gandhi earlier.
The tweet that caused Gandhi’s account to be locked had a picture of the parents of a 9-year old, who was allegedly gang-raped and murdered in Delhi Cantt a few days ago.
Twitter said the action was taken for violation of its rules that do not allow the identity of a rape victim to be revealed, and was part of proactive action taken by the platform on several hundred accounts. Only those accounts that did not take down the picture were locked.
The parents have now given consent for their picture to be tweeted.
Locking the account prevents account owners from tweeting, but the profiles remain visible and accessible to them and their followers.
According to Twitter, the locking action on accounts was taken after it was alerted by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights about specific content on the platform that allegedly revealed the identity of an alleged sexual assault victim’s (and a minor’s) parents.
While Gandhi’s account access has been restored, the tweet on which action was taken continues to be withheld in India because it is in violation of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.
“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). The withholding actions are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be unlawful and remains available elsewhere. Details of the withheld content is published on Lumen notice,” the Twitter spokesperson added.
Twitter has a policy under which it can withhold certain content in a specific country, preventing the content from being visible in that country only. These will be visible outside the country.
Many Congress leaders, including INC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and supporters changed their Twitter profile pictures to that of Rahul Gandhi on Thursday.
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