Twitter reacts to Rahul Gandhi’s hacked account

The Twitter handles of both the Congress party and its vice president Rahul Gandhi were hacked on Thursday morning. What followed was a slew of tweets from both accounts, criticising the party and its members, including plenty of cuss words directed at the Gandhi family.

And yet, though it was obvious both accounts were compromised, that didn’t stop Twitter from piling on the insults where Rahul Gandhi was concerned. “Please don’t blame Rahul Gandhi,” said one Twitter user, “Twitter is not a Swiss company and Congress is only good at managing Swiss accounts.” Another user added, “Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account hasn’t been hacked, it’s just that for the first time he himself is tweeting from that account.”

Confirming the hack, Gandhi’s office said efforts were being made to rectify the problem.

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Congress party’s chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala ​said, “First @OfficeOfRG & now @INCIndia hacked by lumpen fascists. Free speech & right to disagree in India is under attack by licensed trolls.” The Congress has, meanwhile, filed a complaint with the Cyber cell of Delhi Police over the hacking of Rahul Gandhi’s  account.

The complaint was filed by Surjewala, demanding strict action against those behind the hacking.

After the incident, Congress raised questions on the digital safety of all Indians and said it reflects disturbing insecurities of the prevalent “fascist culture” in the country. The party is likely to raise the issue of hacking of verified twitter accounts of Rahul Gandhi and Congress in both the houses of the parliament.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police has initiated a probe into the hacking of Rahul Gandhi’s Twitter account and has written to the management of the social media site seeking necessary details.

“We have written to Twitter to provide us log details such as the IP address of the hackers. We have started investigating the matter,” a senior police official said.