Aim to protect individuals from harm: Twitter on Rahul Gandhi’s account being temporarily locked

Days after Congress claimed Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account was “temporarily locked”, Twitter stated that the social media platform locks an account if a tweet “violates” or poses “safety and security threat” to any individual.

In a statement, Twitter said the action was taken as per the information shared by the National Commission of Women (NCW) according to the guidelines under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

“Our aim is to protect individuals from coming to physical harm as a result of their information being shared on Twitter and certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and can pose serious safety and security threats. Information shared by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights in their legal request submitted via the India Grievance Channel citing specific provisions of the POCSO Act, provided context and was taken into account for the assessment,” Twitter said.

“We enforce the Twitter Rules judiciously and impartially for everyone on our service. As explained in our Help Center, if a tweet was found to be in violation of the Twitter Rules, and has yet to be deleted by the account holder, we hide it behind a notice and the account remains locked until the tweet is removed or the appeal is successfully processed,” Twitter said in a statement.

The social media platform also said that several tweets with the same image were also taken down. “We have also taken action on several other tweets that posted the same image and will continue to do so if the content is shared,” Twitter said.

WHAT RAHUL GANDHI TWEETED

Last week, Twitter removed a post of Rahul Gandhi with a picture of him meeting the family of a nine-year-old girl who died in New Delhi. The incident had triggered national outrage.

A message from Twitter read that the tweet had violated its rules.

Along with the picture, Rahul Gandhi tweeted in Hindi: “Parents’ tears are saying only one thing — their daughter, the daughter of this country, deserves justice. And I am with them on this path to justice.”

The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had asked Delhi Police and Twitter to take action against Rahul Gandhi for posting the photo of the girl’s family on the microblogging site.