Nationalist Congress Party on Friday Twitter asked India to outline its account-blocking policy
Bombay:
The Nationalist Congress party on Friday asked Twitter India to clarify its account-blocking policy, accusing it of carrying out such acts “under pressure”.
NCP chief spokesman and Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik told reporters that the microblogging and social networking company’s decision to block and suspend the “handles” of congressional leaders such as Rahul Gandhi had raised several questions.
Rahul Gandhi’s account was temporarily suspended by Twitter last week after the National Commission for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (NCPCR) sent a message to Twitter asking it to act against the congress leader’s policy of tweeting of photos of the family of a minor victim of alleged rape and murder last week in Delhi.
The NCPCR had cited the Juvenile Criminal Justice Act that mandates the privacy of underage victims.
Twitter later locked down Gandhi’s account and several other party leader handles, as well as the official congressional handle for tweeting the same photos as Gandhi.
“Recently, Twitter India and the central government were involved in a stalemate. Now the handles of opposition leaders have been blocked. This is happening under pressure. Twitter India must disclose its policy on what kinds of messages will be blocked and why handles will be blocked” Malik said.
He asked if the company would block all accounts that violate rules, adding that lack of clarity about this would raise doubts that Twitter is “functioning under central government pressure.”
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NewsMadura staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
