Truth triumphs, says Congress after Twitter unlocks Rahul Gandhi’s handle

The Congress reacted by tweeting “Satyameva Jayate” (truth alone triumphs)) after Twitter restored the accounts of party leader Rahul Gandhi and some functionaries, ending a week-long blocking of their accounts.

Gandhi, whose account was blocked after he tweeted a photo of the family members of an alleged rape victim, did not tweet till Saturday evening to mark his “Twitter freedom”. He had hit out at the American social media firm on Friday, alleging that blocking his account amounted to interfering with the democratic structure of India.

Meanwhile, Congress leader and chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on IT, Shashi Tharoor, said blocking Twitter accounts was an extreme step, be it of Gandhi this time or then minister Ravishankar Prasad earlier. “In my conversations w/@Twitter I took strong exception to the policy of automatically locking accounts, whether @RahulGandhi’s or @rsprasad’s.


If there is a violation of law, whether POSCO or copyright, it should suffice to withhold the offending tweet & issue notice to the user,” Tharoor tweeted. “Locking an account is an extreme step that infringes the freedom of expression of users. The rules can be upheld without such action. This may be a worldwide policy but I urge @Twitter to revise it forthwith. Its often selective application makes it worse. A rethink is overdue.”