Twitter bans Indian actor Kangana Ranaut for 'abusive behaviour'

Twitter has banned Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut, known for her ardent support of right-wing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing her of violating its rules on hateful conduct and abusive behaviour.

Ranaut issued a tweet on Monday in which she urged Modi to resort to gangster tactics to "tame" West Bengal's chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose regional party defeated Modi's Hindu nationalists in elections over the weekend to retain control of the state government in Kolkata.

Ranaut's tweet referred to Banerjee as a "monster" and urged Modi to become a "super gundai" (super thug) of "early 2000s" in his fight against her –– apparently referring to Gujarat state's anti-Muslims riots, when Modi was chief minister, and in which some 1,000 people, mostly Muslims were massacred. 

Following the election, Banerjee's party was accused of violent attacks on its defeated opponents, which it denies.

READ MORE: Twitter deletes Bollywood star Ranaut’s tweets on farmers protests

Twitter cites 'hateful conduct policy'

Confirming that Ranaut's account had been suspended, Twitter explained its policy on Tuesday.

"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."

"Suspension is go-stand-in-the-corner like punishment," Afreen Fatima, an activist wrote on Twitter.

"Kangana should be dragged to court. While Sharjeel Imam and Umar Khalid are in jail under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and they did not even say a word that was calling for violence or even problematic. Hindu privilege is a thing!"

'Anti-Brown Americans?'

Ranaut, a winner of several national film awards, railed against Twitter's action in a statement.

"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 their is no end to the suffering."

Repeated offender 

Ranaut, the award-winning star of 2014's "Queen" and 2015's "Tanu Weds Manu Returns", has attracted controversy over her outspoken social media presence and frequent spats with fellow actors and filmmakers.

In February, Ranaut attacked pop superstar Rihanna for tweeting about mass protests by farmers in India, calling the singer "a fool" and the farmers "terrorists" for opposing new agriculture laws.

Ranaut also called climate activist Greta Thunberg a "rat" for her message of solidarity and unity with the farmers. 

Same month she also compared herself to Hollywood actresses Meryl Streep and Gal Gadot, sparking accusations of "arrogance" and "self-obession" by her critics. 

"The kind of range I display as a performer no other actress on this globe has that right now, I have raw talent like Meryl Streep for layered character depictions but I can also do skilled action and glamour like Gal Gadot," she wrote on Twitter earlier this year.