Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal on December 27, 2021, blaming a government campaign to ‘silence his voice’ after a drop in his new follower count on the social media platform.

“I have been reliably, albeit discreetly, informed by people at Twitter India that they are under immense pressure by the government to silence my voice,” adding, “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,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for Twitter said that the follower counts is a visible feature and the company has a “zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and spam”, reported news agency ANI.

Gandhi had written, “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 In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times.”

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The politician had also raised the issue of his account being blocked for sharing photos that other government Twitter handles had also posted. “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,” he wrote.

Responding to this complaint, the Twitter spokesperson said, “We remove millions of accounts each week for violating our policies on platform manipulation and spam. You can take a look at the latest Twitter Transparency Center update for more context. While some accounts notice minor differences, in certain cases the number could be higher.”

“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,” Gandhi had said.

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A spokesperson from the social media giant had earlier declined to comment on the Congress leader’s complaint when approached by The Wall Street Journal. He did, however, say that the follower counts could change frequently due to machine learning used by Twitter to fight spam. 

Srivatsa YB, in charge of Digital communication for Indian Youth Congress had responded to the claim, “This is neither a fully explanatory nor a satisfactory response… The chronology of events does not corroborate Twitter’s claims.”