India’s largest opposition party, the Indian National Congress (INC) or “Congress Party,” said on Thursday it has been locked out of its Twitter account.
The INC denounced the ban as an act of political censorship ordered by the ruling BJP party, while Twitter claimed the INC account posted “several hundred tweets” with an image that violated the platform’s user agreement.
“When our leaders were put in jails, we were not scared. Then why would we be afraid of closing our Twitter accounts now?” the INC said defiantly in a Thursday post on Facebook.
“We are Congress. This is the message of the people. We will fight. We will keep fighting. If it is a crime to raise our voice to get justice for the rape victim girl, then we will do this crime a hundred times,” the party declared.
This was a reference to the image that Twitter cited as the reason for locking the INC’s account: a photo of party leader Rahul Gandhi meeting on August 4 with the family of a nine-year-old girl allegedly raped, murdered, and cremated in early August by the priest in charge of a Delhi crematorium and three of his employees.
The photo included no graphic content – just Gandhi and the family – but clearly depicted the victim’s family, which would make it possible to identify the girl. Revealing the identity of a sexual assault victim is illegal under Indian law.
The girl’s family was originally told she died in an electrical accident while getting water from an electric water cooler, then threatened to remain silent about the incident. The alleged perpetrators are in police custody while the investigation continues. The case generated public outrage, including protest marches in Delhi attended by the girl’s family, because the victim was a member of the oppressed Dalit caste.
Protesters suspect the higher-caste perpetrators will be given lenient sentences or allowed to escape punishment entirely, especially since they destroyed crucial evidence by cremating the victim’s body. A second sexual assault on an even younger Dalit girl in eastern Delhi less than two weeks later further inflamed passions.
Demonstrators infuriated by the silence of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, leader of the BJP party, have been burning him in effigy at their protests. The INC is attempting to have the case discussed in parliamentary session and assailing the BJP for its alleged indifference to crimes perpetrated against the Dalit community.
“The daughter of a Dalit is also the daughter of the nation,” Gandhi declared on Twitter before his own account was blocked on Monday for sharing photos of himself with the slain Dalit girl’s family.
INC social media coordinator Rohan Gupta said on Thursday that 5,000 accounts belonging to his party’s officials and employees have been locked, in addition to the main INC account and party leader Gandhi’s.
“Twitter is clearly acting under government’s pressure, as it did not remove the same pictures shared by the Twitter accounts of National Commission for Scheduled Castes for a few days,” Gupta charged.
Other INC members denounced Twitter for censoring them at the behest of Modi and the BJP, only to see their own accounts locked shortly after tweeting their criticism.
“Modi, just how afraid are you?” the INC jeered from its Instagram account on Thursday, alongside a screen capture of its Twitter suspension message. “Reminder: the Congress Party fought for our nation’s independence, equipped only with truth, non-violence, and the will of the people. We won then, we’ll win again.”
Twitter representatives insisted the bans on the INC and many of its members were “enforced judiciously and impartially” because the photos they posted of the rape victim’s family constituted “private information” that could put them at risk.
The INC account blocks were reportedly prompted by a call from India’s child protective service, which said the tweets should be suppressed because they identified the family and, by extension, the nine-year-old victim.
“Certain types of private information carry higher risks than others, and our aim is always to protect individuals’ privacy and safety. We strongly encourage everyone on the service to familiarize themselves with the Twitter Rules and report anything they believe is in violation,” the company said.
“I understand Twitter’s position that it has no choice but to block accounts that violate Indian law and Twitter policy,” senior INC leader Shashi Tharoor responded on Thursday. “While the law is what it is, policy can be reviewed. Automatically locking accounts is an extreme step that stifles the freedom of expression of Indian citizens.”
Tharoor said the rape, murder, and cremation of the Dalit girl “shocked the nation’s conscience” and demands “expeditious action, not against Rahul Gandhi for a technical violation of law, but against those who were complicit in this human tragedy.”
Tech Crunch on Thursday noted that Twitter faced intimidating retaliatory actions from the Indian government in May after labeling a post from a BJP spokesperson as “manipulated media,” nourishing suspicions that the BJP has tightened its grip on the company and is now using it to censor political opposition. Twitter itself has complained that India’s latest regulations on information technology could threaten freedom of speech.
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