Facebook is hiding posts demanding the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, indicating that the platform will be out soon. several conflicting choices which affects free speech in a country that is experiencing all the problems of COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the world’s largest network claimed that articles containing the hashtag or message #ResignModi were “hidden here” because “some of the content violates our Public Standards.” Because the records were confidential, it is not known what items violated the rules of the company whose employers are interested in disclosing. The ban appears to be using Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns.
Last week, the Indian government ordered Twitter banning access to more than 50 tweets criticizing Modi’s handling of the epidemic. The program of Wall Street Journal he also said that Facebook and Instagram blocked Modi’s posts by sending them to the government.
It was not immediately clear whether Facebook’s ban on the #ResignModi hashtag came according to the Indian government, or whether it happened according to the company. Hashtag was shut down in India, according to users who shared views on Twitter, as well as in the United States, Canada, and England based on a search by BuzzFeed News.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone declined to comment on why the hashtag was blocked. An Indian spokesman for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has not yet responded to a request for comment.
This seems to be the first time that Facebook has banned the call for a democratically elected world leader. It contradicts what founder Mark Zuckerberg said he prefers to give up what is possible if possible. The ban appears to be contrary to the principles of the previously celebrated platform for helping to advance the Arab Spring that led to the democratic uprising that overthrew Egypt’s dictator Hosni Mubarak and dictatorial regimes in many other countries in the region.
In February, India He made new laws on television and online, which gives the government the ability to seek platforms like Facebook and Twitter to dispel what the government sees as questionable.
While there are indications that a normal life will return to the beginning of this year, India is currently the deadliest eruption in the world, which has filled its leader.
“The Hindu government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken on the challenge of developing a plan to fight the epidemic in a poor country like India and make this impossible,” he said. wrote Tuesday in the Indian Caravan.
Earlier this year, cases in India dropped dramatically, and many parts of the country are back in good health. But since March, the cases have grown. More than 360,000 people are said to have been infected and 3,293 died yesterday, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. The crisis has pushed the country’s health system to the brink, and people are dying in their cars trying to find hospitals in Delhi. Before the meetings and religious meetings has spread the virus, while the Modi government is struggling to take action. On Sunday, President Joe Biden announced The US would be in a hurry national, as well as the lifting of restrictions on exports of vaccines necessary for vaccination.
Facebook’s relationship with the Modi government and its party Bharatiya Janata have been monitored ever since Wall Street Journal revealed in August that India’s chief of staff had defended a prominent BJP member and three other Hindu individuals who went unpunished for violating hate speech on Facebook. The employee, Ankhi Das, Facebook’s chief of staff for India and South and Central Asia, later he apologized and resignation after sharing with them a Facebook post that said that the Muslims of India are a “proud group” for them “without religion and to establish the Shariah issue.”
“In the context of the current political crisis, it is also important that Facebook does not show this and does not respond,” said Evelyn douek, a teacher at Harvard Law School. “This seems to be a political issue at a very difficult time.”
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