India: Congress Twitter account blocked for “violations of law”

The social networking site Twitter has blocked the official Twitter account of the Indian National Congress, India’s largest opposition party.

The country’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has claimed that “Twitter has taken this step out of respect for the law of the land.”

After months of controversy, Twitter has begun to comply with India’s current social media laws. These laws require social media platforms to remove content that authorities deem illegal.

On Saturday, Twitter suspended the official account of former Congress president Rahul Gandhi and so far at least 5,000 Twitter accounts of party leaders have been blocked.

Twitter says the accounts were blocked for “violations of the law.”

In a tweet, he said: “Banning [the country’s] largest opposition party is undemocratic, illegal and immoral. This is wrong and an attack on our freedom of expression. ”

He accused Twitter of doing so “out of fear of the government”.
However, in a statement, Twitter said its rules were “applied thoughtfully and impartially”.