Twitter Justifies Restricting Kangana Amidst 'Tandav' Controversy

Kangana's Twitter account was temporarily restricted for a tweet calling for violence against the makers of 'Tandav'

Actor Kangana Ranaut.

(Photo Courtesy: Instagram)

Twitter has defended its decision to temporarily suspend actor Kangana Ranaut's Twitter account after she called for violence against the makers of web series Tandav.

Justifying the restriction, a Twitter spokesperson told NDTV, "We take action on any account that violates the Twitter Rules. We welcome people to freely express themselves on our service, however as outlined in our Abusive Behaviour Policy, you may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so.” They added, “We prohibit content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm against an individual or group of people and take enforcement action when we identify violations which could include placing an account in read-only mode.”

Amazon Prime Video series Tandav has been at the centre of controversy after several BJP leaders claimed that it was offensive to Hindu religious sentiments.

In a deleted post on 18 January Kangana Ranaut had written, "Because even Lord Krishna forgave 99 mistakes of Sheshupala... pehle shanti phir kranti (first peace then vengence)... time to take their heads off.. Jai Shri Krishan..." She was responding to a tweet by Twitter user @TheAtulMishra.

Kangana faced a lot of criticism from numerous Twitter users and they even appealed to Twitter to suspend her account for "spreading hate". Her Twitter account was restricted for a few hours as it violated the social media platform’s guidelines. Kangana deleted her incendiary tweet but challenged Twitter to ban her.

She wrote in a new tweet, "Anti nationals are trending #SuspendKanganaRanaut .... please do, when they suspended Rangs I came and made their lives even more miserable, now if they suspend me will exit virtual world and in real world will show you real Kangana Ranaut- the mother of all fathers #babbarsherni."

Defending her deleted tweet, she wrote in Hindi, "The liberals who are scared and crying to their mothers must read this. I did not ask for you to be beheaded. Even I know that insects and worms need pesticide."

On Tuesday, the cast and crew of Tandav said in a statement that they had agreed to make changes to the show, following discussions with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.