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Facebook temporarily hid messages demanding the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, marking the platform’s latest attempt a series of controversial decisions Affecting freedom of expression in a country experiencing the COVID-19 crisis.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest social network said that posts with the hashtag #ResignModi traola or text were “temporarily hidden here” because “some of the content in those posts goes against our Community Rules.” Since the publications were hidden, it is not clear what content violated the rules of a company in which executives have often expressed a commitment to open disclosure.
After hiding messages with the hashtag for about three hours, Facebook reversed its decision and allowed users to find and access posts with Modi’s critics as soon as this story was published.
Last week, The Indian government ordered Twitter Modik criticized the pandemic’s management for blocking access to more than 50 tweets. The Wall Street Journal he also reported that Facebook and Instagram have blocked messages about Modi on government orders.
It was not immediately clear whether Facebook’s hiding the hashtag #ResignModi came at the behest of the Indian government or at the decision of the company. The tag was hidden inside India, according to people who shared screens shared on Twitter and searches in the United States, Canada and England by BuzzFeed News.
February, India established new regulations on social media and online videos, they give the government the ability to ask platforms like Facebook and Twitter to remove content that the government deems objectionable.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone declined to explain why the hashtag was hidden, but said it has been restored everywhere since this story was published. He declined to give further details about what happened and only said he was “analyzing” the company.
A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has not yet responded to a request.
It seems that Facebook is the first time Facebook has demanded and blocked or hidden the resignation of a democratically elected world leader, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stated that it is about leaving content as much as possible. The ban seems antithetical to the principles of a platform that was once held for the mission of perpetuating the Arab Spring, which sparked a wave of democratic uprisings that overthrew Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and autocratic authorities in several other countries in the region.
Despite signs that normal life would return earlier this year, India is now immersed in the most serious outbreaks of coronavirus in the world, which has given its leader increasing criticism.
“The Hindu-nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken the difficult task of organizing a pandemic response in a poor country like India and it has become impossible,” wrote the Indian magazine The Caravan on Tuesday.
Earlier this year, cases in India collapsed, and most places in the country resumed normal life. But starting in March, the number of cases increased. More than 360,000 people were reported to have been infected and 3,293 were killed yesterday Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The crisis has pushed the country’s health care system to the limit people die in cars trying to get into hospitals in Delhi. Pre-election rallies and religious gatherings they have spread the virus as the Modi government makes efforts to respond.
On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced it The U.S. would rush supplies to the country, as well as removing restrictions on the export of raw materials needed for vaccines.
Facebook’s links to the Modi government and its Bharatiya Janata party have been under examination Wall Street Journal In August he revealed that the company’s main employee in India was backed by a prominent member of the BJP and at least three other Hindu nationalists who had broken the rules of hate speech on Facebook. The employee, Ankhi Das, is the director of Facebook for India and South and Central Asia on Facebook, later he apologized and he resigned The Muslims in India called it a “degenerate community” after sharing a Facebook message for them, “except for the purity of religion and the implementation of Shariah”.
“In the context of a highly politicized environment and a constant emergency, it’s very worrying that Facebook is more transparent about this and doesn’t comment,” said evelyn douek, a professor at Harvard Law School. “It seems to be a key political discourse at a very critical time.”
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