Social media behemoth Twitter on Wednesday informed the Delhi High Court that it had locked the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi because the senior Congress leader had violated its policy by sharing the pictures of the minor rape victims in a tweet posted by him.
During the hearing of the PIL seeking direction to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and police to take action against the Gandhi scion for his tweet where he allegedly disclosed the identity of Delhi minor rape-murder victim, Twitter said it has removed the said tweet and locked his account.
Twitter informs DelhiHC that Rahul Gandhi’s tweet violated their policy during hearing PIL seeking direction to National Commission for Protection of Child Rights&police to take action against him for his tweet allegedly disclosing identity of Delhi minor rape-murder victim’s kin pic.twitter.com/BYRQWzkQgS
— ANI (@ANI) August 11, 2021
A PIL has been filed by social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar in Delhi High Court seeking action against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for disclosing the identity of the 9-year-old rape victim and her family on Twitter.
In the petition, Maharashtra-based social activist Makarand Suresh Mhadlekar alleged that Rahul Gandhi has violated section 74 of the Juvenile Justice Act, 2015 and section 23(2)the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), 2012. Both the provisions mandate that the identity of the child victim of a crime shall not be disclosed. The petition also sought legal action against Rahul Gandhi by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) for making public the identity of the minor victim.
Despite Twitter informing the court that they have removed the tweet and locked the account, the petitioner insisted that the social media company should file an affidavit. However, the court rejected that demand, saying that there was no reason why Twitter would be lying. The court said that Twitter has acted responsibly, and there was no reason to disbelieve them. The court posted the matter for hearing on 27 September.
Rahul Gandhi refrains from tweeting despite the end of temporary ban, wants Twitter to ‘apologise’ for the snub: Sources
Shortly after sharing the picture, Gandhi’s account was temporarily locked, following which Twitter issued a statement saying that 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.
Reportedly, the account was subsequently restored but Rahul Gandhi is yet to make any post on Twitter following the incident. Sources in the Congress IT cell tell OpIndia that the party wants Twitter to either come out and say that they ‘locked out’ Rahul Gandhi’s account under pressure from the Government of India or to at least issue a regret note for doing so.
The sources further added that the party has threatened that they will ask all Congress supporters and workers to quit the platform if the social networking giant does not publicly apologise for ‘wrongly suspending’ Rahul Gandhi’s account. As a mark of solidarity with Rahul Gandhi, various Congress leaders took to sharing the same image that got the Gandhi scion’s account locked out over violation of the POCSO Act.
