Rahul Gandhi Writes To Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal, Flags Limit On New Followers
New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has written to Twitter complaining that his followers on the social media platform have not increased since his account was temporarily suspended in August 2021.
In the letter written to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on December 27, Rahul Gandhi said that the “unwitting complicity” of Twitter was curbing free speech in India.
Gandhi said that since his account was temporarily suspended after he raised the issue of Dalit girl who died after she was raped, his average monthly follower count has “fallen to nearly zero”.
“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… You have an enormous responsibility to ensure that Twitter does not actively help in the growth of authoritarianism in India,” Gandhi wrote in the letter.
Along with the letter, the Congress MP also has also sent an analysis of his follower count – comparing it to the follower count of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
Gandhi said that while he added an average of about four lakh followers for the first seven months in 2021, the growth stopped for several months following an eight-day suspension in August last year.
“Perhaps not so coincidentally, it was precisely during these months that I raised the plight of a rape victim’s family in Delhi, stood in solidarity with farmers and fought the government on many other human rights issues. In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched videos on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times,” he said in the letter.
