Facebook temporarily hid posts calling for PM Modi’s resignation, says it was by mistake
Facebook temporarily hid all posts calling for the resignation of prime minister Narendra Modi amid worsening Covid-19 situation in India. Netizens who used ‘ResignModi’ hashtag in their posts complained that their post had been hidden for ‘violating its community standards.’
On its website, Facebook said it had hidden posts with the “ResignModi” hashtag because some of those violated its community standards — and not because of any legal order.
Hey @Facebook what is this ? pic.twitter.com/reQi0QZGtq
— Dr. Srinivas MD (@srinivasaiims) April 28, 2021
Later, responding to a tweet showing the hidden posts, Facebook’s Policy Communications Director Andy Stone said it barred the hashtag by mistake and not at the behest of the government.
“We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it,” Andy Stone tweeted.
Here’s more on what happened today: We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) April 29, 2021
The controversy erupted days after Facebook and Twitter complied with an order from New Delhi to censor some posts critical of the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic. According to reports, Centre had flagged as many as 50 tweets critical of the government’ and asked Twitter to take them down. The tweets that were withheld include those by posts by Telangana MP Revanth Reddy, West Bengal Minister Moloy Ghatak, actor Vineet Kumar Singh, and two filmmakers, Vinod Kapri and Avinash Das, Medianama had reported.
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Meanwhile, India saw a record single day rise of 3,79,257 new coronavirus infections pushing the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 1,83,76,524, while active cases crossed the 30-lakh mark, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.
The death toll increased to 2,04,832 with a record 3,645 daily new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
