Twitter suspends account of Bollywood’s Kangana Ranaut for ‘inciting violence’

Twitter has suspended the account of Kangana Ranaut, Bollywood actress, for allegedly violating its rules in a tweet accused of inciting violence.

The movie star had in the said tweet called on Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, to replicate his leadership style used in the early 2000s to “tame” an opposition leader.

“This is horrible…we need super gundai to kill gundai. She is like an unleashed monster. To tame her, Modi please show your Virat roop from early 2000s,” she had written in the tweet.

Her tweet had come as a reaction to the controversy trailing the recent West Bengal assembly election results where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost to the opposition.

But the 34-year-old’s call for Modi’s approach in 2002, which sparked a riot and reportedly left thousands of Muslims dead, had stirred heated outrage.

Twitter’s spokesperson explained that the suspension followed “repeated violation” of the company’s rules, particularly those bordering on hateful conduct policy and abusive behavior policy by the actress.

“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behaviour that has the potential to lead to offline harm,” Hindustan Times quoted the spokesperson as saying.

“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.”

But reacting, Ranaut accused the microblogging platform of racism and attempt to stiffle freedom of expression.

“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,” she told ANI news agency.

“But 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.”

She also took to her Instagram page to kick against the suspension, describing it as the “death of democracy.”

“Depressed beyond words, death of democracy. Important message for our government,” she said in a video.

 

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A post shared by Kangana Ranaut (@kanganaranaut)

The actress has drawn commendations from several quarters for her criticism of societal ills, particularly in Bollywood.

However, she has also faced backlash from critics over her knack for controversies and alleged social media attacks against perceived opponents of Modi.