Twitter restores access to Rahul Gandhi's account; tweet withheld in India according to country's laws

Twitter has restored access to the account of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi after he submitted a consent letter from the parents of a minor victim who was allegedly raped and killed to use their image that Gandhi had shared on the microblogging platform. However, the tweet has been withheld in India due to the country's laws that prohibit revealing the identity of the minor girl victim.

"As part of the appeal process, @RahulGandhi has submitted a copy of the formal consent/authorisation letter to use the referenced image via our India Grievance Channel. We have followed the necessary due diligence process to review the appeal in order to protect the safety and privacy of the affected individuals and updated our enforcement action based on the consent provided by the people depicted in the image," a Twitter spokesperson said in an email response. "The Tweet is now withheld in India and the account access has been restored."

Twitter said as part of its country withheld policy, it may be necessary to withhold access to certain content in accordance with valid legal provisions under the Indian law(s).


"The withholding actions are limited to the specific jurisdiction/country where the content is determined to be unlawful and remains available elsewhere," the spokesperson said.

The accounts of the Congress party, as well as several others, were also restored after they shared the consent letter from the parents of the minor victim. However, their tweets with the image of the parents have been withheld in India according to the country's laws.

Twitter had locked access to Rahul Gandhi's account early this month after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights said the tweet of Gandhi sharing photos of the parents of the minor victim, who was allegedly raped and killed in Delhi.

The Congress on Friday charged Twitter with “double standards” in blocking its official Twitter handle and accused the social media giant of acting “under government pressure”.