Rahul Gandhi Flagged Sharp Drop In New Twitter Followers In Letter To CEO

Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Twitter's new CEO Parag Agrawal, urging him to "not allow Twitter to become a pawn in the destruction of the idea of India".

Twitter has been "unwittingly complicit" in curbing free speech in India, senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote to the company's CEO Parag Agrawal last month, alleging a government campaign to suppress his reach on the platform, according to a letter seen by NDTV.

In a letter dated December 27 that included an analysis of data from his Twitter account as well as comparisons with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, Mr Gandhi said that while he added an average of about 4 lakh followers for the first seven months of 2021, the growth came to an abrupt halt for several months following an eight-day suspension in August last year.

In the same period, other politicians maintained their new followers' count.

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 In fact, a video of mine that promised farmers that the 3 infamous farm laws will be repealed is among the most watched video on Twitter posted by any political leader in India in recent times," Mr Gandhi wrote.