Tag: Alt News

  • Rahul Gandhi asks Twitter why his followers seem to be restricted, Twitter denies claim

    Rahul Gandhi asks Twitter why his followers seem to be restricted, Twitter denies claim

    Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi wrote a letter to Twitter CEO Parag Aggarwal in December to inquire about the decrease of his followers and if it was due to the influence of the Indian government, reports Wall Street Journal.

    “I want to bring your attention to what I believe is Twitter’s unwitting complicity in curbing free and fair speech in India… 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,” wrote Gandhi.

    “Since August, the average number of my new monthly Twitter followers has fallen to nearly zero. There is an inflection point after which my Twitter account seems to have been paralysed.”

    Co-founder of AltNews, Mohammed Zubair, analysed the Twitter account of Rahul Gandhi and compared it with the Twitter accounts of Indian Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah and Indian Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi. It revealed that followers of Gandhi dropped drastically whereas Shah and Modi gained more followers since September 2021.

    Twitter also responded to Rahul Gandhi’s claims of restricting his followers, “Follower counts are a visible feature, and we want everyone to have confidence that the numbers are meaningful and accurate. Twitter has a zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and spam. We fight 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.”

    Twitter also highlighted that they do remove accounts that violate its community policies.

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

    Last year, Twitter temporarily suspended the account of Rahul Gandhi on August 8, 2021, when he uploaded a photograph with the family of a nine-year-old Dalit rape victim, which was taken down by Twitter later.

  • ‘Jinnah se jo kare pyaar, wo Pakistan se kaise kare inkaar,’ BJP member accuses Akhilesh Yadav of being pro-Pakistani

    Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson Sambit Patra accused Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav of showing his love to Pakistan and its founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.

    “Jinnah se jo kare pyaar, wo Pakistan se kaise kare inkaar (Those who love Jinnah, how can they reject Pakistan),” said Patra on Monday.

    Opposition party chief Akhilesh Yadav recently shared his views on China’s investment in India during an interview with The Economic Times and said that China, not Pakistan was India’s real enemy.

    “Our real enemy is China. Pakistan is our political enemy. But BJP only targets Pakistan because of their vote politics,” said Yadav.

    He further added that China has intruded in the territory of India and its businesses.

    He commented, “The Indian government should think about this and consult opposition parties on how to deal with the situation.”

    Patra accused Yadav of “love” for Pakistan.

    Prior to this incident, BJP leaders also targeted Yadav over his remarks on Independence from the British rule last year at a public gathering.

    He was accused by the ruling government that he gave credit to Jinnah for India’s independence from British rule.

    Yadav apparently said in the video shared by BJP leaders, “Jinnah became a barrister after studying in the same institution. He obtained his education and served as a barrister in the same place. He got freedom for India. He did not back down from any struggle…”

    However, a fact-check by AltNews revealed that the clip was distorted and was actually a two-minute-long video.

    The Indian news agency, ANI, posted the complete video on Twitter on October 31, 2021.

    Yadav said, “Sardar Patel used to make decisions keeping in mind the situation on the ground. He would only make decisions after gaining a proper understanding of what was happening at the grassroots level. That’s why he is known as the Iron Man of India. Sardar Patel, Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, and [Muhammad Ali] Jinnah became barristers after attending the same institution. They got freedom for India. They did not back down from any struggles. It was Iron Man of India Sardar Patel who imposed a ban on an ideology (RSS).”