Twitter on Tuesday permanently suspended actor Kangana Ranaut’s account following a series of controversial tweets over the prevailing situation in West Bengal, which triggered sharp reactions on social media.
When contacted, a Twitter spokesperson, said: “We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour 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. We enforce the Twitter Rules judiciously and impartially for everyone on our service.”
According to Twitter’s abusive behaviour policy, the account holders cannot engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. Abusive behaviour is considered to be an attempt to harass, intimidate, or silence someone else’s voice.
As part of the action, Twitter notifies the account holder concerned about the suspension, explains which policy or policies the person has violated and which content was in violation.
However, Kangana is still active on her Instagram handle, where she shared a video on how the violence in West Bengal has left her “distressed” and “beyond words” and called it the “death of democracy”. She posted the video stating that it was an important message for our government on the Bengal violence.
She has also responded to Twitter suspending her account in a statement, saying that there are other platforms where she can voice her opinions, “Twitter has only proved my point they are 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. Fortunately I have many platforms I can use to raise my voice including my own art in the form of cinema but my heart goes out to the people of this nation who have been tortured, enslaved and censored for thousands of years and still their is no end to the suffering.”
This story first appeared on thehindu.com