A Twitter spokesperson said on Tuesday that they have banned Indian actress Kangana Ranaut from Twitter for violating the platform’s policies and resorting to hateful conduct and abusive behaviour. Ranaut, known for her ardent support of the Modi-led government, has earned a name for her controversial stances in India, like denouncing the recent farmer protests that shook New Delhi and divided the nation.
Ranaut posted a tweet on Monday in which she urged Prime Minister Modi to resort to gangster tactics to “tame” West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, whose regional party secured a landslide victory against Modi’s Hindu nationalists in the election over the weekend.
Following the elections, Banerjee’s party was accused of instigating violent attacks on its defeated opponents, which it denies. Ranaut reacted to the whole incident. Taking to Twitter, she called Banerjee an “unleashed monster” and urged Modi to “tame” her.
“We need super gundai (hooliganism in Hindi) to kill gundai… Modi ji (an honorific) please show your Virat roop (larger-than-life form) from the early 2000s,” she posted, an apparent reference to 2002 Gujarat riots that took place when Modi was the state chief minister. A thousand people, mostly Muslims, were killed in the riots and thousands of families displaced.
Twitter confirmed on Tuesday that Ranaut’s account has been permanently banned from the platform. The social media giant reiterated its policy, saying: “We have 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.”
Ranaut was not happy with Twitter’s decision. “Twitter has only proved my point. They are Americans, and by birth a white person feels entitled to enslave a brown person”, she said.
“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 there is no end to the suffering.”