Twitter Says Aims to Protect Individuals from Harm, Day After Rahul Gandhi's Account Locked

Twitter on Monday confirmed that it had locked Rahul Gandhi’s account over a tweet revealing the identity of the nine-year-old Dalit girl who died in Delhi following an alleged sexual assault. The action was taken as the tweet was found to be in violation of the Twitter rules which aim “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,” the social media giant 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.”

“Information shared by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) 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,” said Twitter.

Two days ago, Twitter removed a controversial post of Gandhi with a picture of him meeting the family of the girl on Wednesday. Posting the picture, Gandhi had 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 the Delhi Police and Twitter on Wednesday to take action over Gandhi posting the photo of the girl’s family on the microblogging website, saying it violates the Juvenile Justice Act and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act.

Gandhi met the girl’s family members on Wednesday and asserted that he is with them on the path to justice and “will not back down even an inch”.

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