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Rahul Gandhi, the Congress leader, has complained to Twitter that his follower count has remained unchanged since his account was temporarily disabled in August 2021 for a tweet about meeting the family members of a Dalit rape victim.
In a letter to Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal dated December 27 accessed by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) claimed that the government is attempting to limit his influence on the platform. “I am writing to you on behalf of more than a billion Indians to not allow Twitter to become a pawn in the destruction of the idea of India,” wrote Gandhi. He further claimed that Twitter is unwittingly aiding the suppression of free and fair discourse in India.
In addition to the letter, it includes an analysis of data from his Twitter account, as well as a comparison of Twitter followers of four major Indian politicians: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, fellow Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, and himself.
Gandhi gained nearly four lakh, new followers, on average in the first seven months of 2021, according to the data, before his popularity plummeted in the months that followed. While September had a negative number of new followers, only 2,380 and 2,788 new followers were added in October and November, respectively. He has 19.5 million followers right now.
He further added “I have been reliable, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence. My account was even blocked for a few days for no legitimate reason. There were many other Twitter handles, including Government ones, which had tweeted similar photos of the same people. None of those accounts were blocked. My account was singularly targeted”.
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment on the matter but stated that follower numbers vary and that millions of accounts are banned every week for breaking Twitter’s standards, according to the WSJ.
Y.B. Srivatsa, who is in charge of Gandhi’s digital communication said, “ this is neither a fully explanatory nor a satisfactory response the timeline of events does not back up Twitter’s allegation.