After Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal last month flagging a sharp drop in his followers, Twitter on Thursday said numbers are ‘meaningful and accurate’. Twitter also pointed out that it does not arbitrarily censor political content and elevating political debate and open discourse is fundamental to its service and core values.
Responding to him, Twitter's vice president, Global Public Policy and Philanthropy, Sinead McSweeney has said, "Twitter is deeply committed to India" and will ensure that public conversation is healthy, which includes diverse voices, diverse points of view, allowing people to be better informed and to participate safely and comfortably.
The Twitter spokesperson said the platform has been fighting spam and malicious automation strategically and at scale with machine learning tools, and as part of those consistent and ongoing efforts to ensure a healthy service and credible accounts, follower counts can and do fluctuate. "We remove millions of accounts each week for violating our policies on platform manipulation & spam. You can take a look at latest Twitter Transparency Center update for more context. While some accounts notice minor difference,in certain cases no.could be higher," it added.
Reacting to the Twitter’s response, Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said Rahul Gandhi's stand has been that social media platforms cannot be suppressed, subjugated and denigrated to trolls' space and there should instead be a healthy debate and discussion on them. "The plurality, the multi-culturalism, the open debate, the critique of policies and programmes of the government and that the social media patforms should be healthy forum for debates and discussions has been the stand of Rahul Gandhi, which now stands vindicated," Surjewala added.
In the letter dated December 27, last year, Rahul alleged that there is a shadow ban on him which restricts his tweets and the number of people who can follow him. “I want to bring your attention to what I believe is Twitter’s unwitting complicity in curbing free and fair speech in India,” Rahul wrote. He further wrote that he has been “reliably, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence” his voice. Along with the letter, Rahul also sent an analysis of data from his Twitter account showing that his followers have barely increased for several months since August when his account was suspended for eight days.
"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 video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times,” Rahul said in the letter.
Rahul had pointed out that the ideological battle between liberal democracy and authoritarianism across the world is being shaped on social media platforms and this places a huge responsibility on those that are at the helm of companies such as Twitter. As a leader of India's largest opposition party, Rahul said it is his duty to raise my voice on behalf of our people against injustice. Rahul’s followers crossed 19.6 million on Thursday morning, after being stagnant at 19.5 million for many months.
Responding to him, McSweeney said,"We understand increased transparency is at the foundation to promote healthy public conversation on Twitter and to earn trust. We know it is critical that people understand our processes and that we are transparent about what happens as a result. We assure you that Twitter, Inc. Treats its role as a platform service provider with utmost seriousness and we are deeply committed to India".
