Twitter has become increasingly popular with academics as well as students, policymakers, politicians and the general public. Many users struggled to understand what Twitter is and how they could use it, but it has now become the social media platform of choice for many. Twitter is a social media site, and its primary purpose is to connect people and allow people to share their thoughts with a big audience. Twitter is a ‘microblogging’ system that allows you to send and receive short posts called tweets. Tweets can be up to 140 characters long and can include links to relevant websites and resources. Twitter users follow other users. If you follow someone you can see their tweets in your twitter ‘timeline’. Recently, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut’s Twitter handle was permanently suspended after a controversial tweet related to the post-election result violence in Bengal. The account repeatedly violated Twitter policy on “hateful conduct and abusive behavior”, the social media site said on Tuesday. A company spokesperson said, “Kangana Ranaut’s Twitter account has been ‘permanently suspended’ for repeated violation of Twitter rules”.
As the Mamata government again rose to power for the third consecutive time in a row, the things started taking unpleasant turns. From across the state, reports poured in of party-versus-party violence. Most of these reports suggested that the Trinamool Congress was responsible for the incidents. However, in some cases, the Trinamool Congress also alleged that its workers had been attacked and killed by members of the Bharatiya Janata Party. This attracted a whole lot of attention to the fact and cruelty of Post-Poll violence in the state. Several renowned figures raised their voices for or against the behavior of the political groups. The biggest victim of this violence, the BJP took to social media to highlight the violence against its cadres. In its messages, it portrayed the violence as communal, wrought by Muslims upon Hindus, with senior party leaders explicitly naming communities.
Amid this, Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut posted several tweets in her Twitter account which outraged the public. In a tweet Monday, the actress called upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi to use his “Viraat roop” from the early 2000’s to “tame” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The move came after the actress’s vitriolic comments on the post-poll violence in West Bengal, which sounded like a call to violence. Kangana’s tweet had sparked outrage, with many demanding action against her. Commenting on the development, a Twitter spokesperson said Kangana’s account has been suspended for repeated violations, “We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm. The referenced account has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of Twitter Rules specifically our Hateful Conduct policy and Abusive Behaviour policy.”
Following the suspension of her Twitter account, the actress again commented regarding the same that, Twitter’s move shows an alleged race bias. “Twitter has only proved my point they’re Americans and by birth, a white person feels entitled to enslave a brown person, they want to tell you what to think, speak or do. I have many platforms I can use to raise my voice, including my own art in the form of cinema,” Kangana said in a statement to ANI. She added that “my heart goes out to the people of this nation who have been tortured, enslaved, and censored for thousands of years, and still, there is no end to the suffering.”Kangana also responded with a video on Instagram titled, “Distressed, beyond words, death of democracy, an important message for our government.” She asked for President’s rule in the state in the video. The actress also posted a rant on her Instagram account earlier on 4th May,Tuesday
In the teary-eyed harangue, she talks about “disturbing news, videos and photos from Bengal of people being murdered, gang-raped and their houses being burnt”. She also calls for President’s Rule in the state, criticising a “government that I support” for not doing more than dharnas in response to the clashes
In January, commenting on the Amazon Prime Video series Tandav, the actor had asked for the makers’ heads to be taken off. Twitter had put restrictions on her account then.
Her sister Rangoli Chandel’s account was also suspended in August last year, for allegedly “spreading hate” following a tweet on the Tablighi Jamaat. Meanwhile, JNU students’ union president Aishe Ghosh tweeted, “Those who are trying to spread hate, and spew venom creating communal divide shouldn’t be tolerated at any cost. In these times, Bengal is seeing clashes and the Administration should immediately restore harmony. TMC should stop their cadres from unleashing violence. #KanganaRanuat”
