Hashtag Politics | Rahul Gandhi to Elon Musk: Hope Oppn voices won’t be stifled

The Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi was ‘temporarily’ locked on August 8 last year, a day after a photograph he had posted with the family of a 9-year-old Dalit rape victim was taken down by the microblogging site.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and billionaire Elon Musk. (PTI/Reuters)

After a protracted battle, including legal rows, billionaire Elon Musk closed his deal with Twitter Friday and officially took control of the platform. Among other things, Musk has repeatedly stressed upon “absolute free speech” as part of the changes he envisions for the micro-blogging site. The takeover saw a reaction by Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi, who said that Twitter could become the space which will “no longer stifle the Opposition due to government pressure”.

On Friday, Gandhi said, “Congrats @elonmusk. I hope @Twitter will now act against hate speech, fact check more robustly, and will no longer stifle the opposition’s voice in India due to government pressure”, and shared a graph that seemed to suggest that new followers of the MP were “suppressed” between August 2021 and February 2022 – the period between his “tweet about a rape victim” and a Wall Street Journal investigation “exposing” the platform. In this time, Gandhi claimed he had made 20 appeals to the platform and that “Twitter denied any wrong doing”.

Congrats @elonmusk.

I hope @Twitter will now act against hate speech, fact check more robustly, and will no longer stifle the opposition’s voice in India due to government pressure. pic.twitter.com/j2unZeYYj6

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) October 28, 2022

The Twitter account of Gandhi was ‘temporarily’ locked on August 8 last year, a day after a photograph he had posted with the family of the nine-year-old Dalit rape victim was taken down by the microblogging site. The action came after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a notice to Twitter India, asking the social media platform to remove the tweet which revealed the identity of the rape victim.

“Based on a complaint by the BJP, the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi has been locked. Instead of giving justice to the 9-year-old Dalit girl, the BJP and the Narendra Modi government are far too preoccupied in intimidating Twitter as also illegally chasing Rahul Gandhi. Had PM Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah used this time in ensuring justice for the Dalit girl…Delhi would have been a safer place,” Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala said then.

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Reacting to Gandhi’s tweet to Musk, BJP IT in-charge Amit Malviya said, “Imagine for Rahul Gandhi, his stagnant Twitter followers, is the biggest issue plaguing his mind when frankly he should be focusing on his stagnant political career and rapidly sinking fortunes of the Congress party”.

Imagine for Rahul Gandhi, his stagnant Twitter followers, is the biggest issue plaguing his mind when frankly he should be focusing on his stagnant political career and rapidly sinking fortunes of the Congress party.

What next?

Rush to Musk to get EVMs checked?

Grow up, Rahul. https://t.co/xsfh0T72X1

— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) October 28, 2022

He added: “What next? Rush to Musk to get EVMs checked? Grow up, Rahul”.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate responded to Malviya by tweeting: “Hey fake news peddler, do yourself a favour and check out Mr Modi’s engagement rate – clearly bots aren’t retweeting?! And you insecure weaklings, how about answering the Questions RG raises – jobs, inflation, poverty anyone?”

“Get real – get out of your fake news factory,” she added.

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