FB takes down article criticising Modi, sparks fears of censorship

The link to an article on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2003 UK visit disappeared from Facebook timelines, sparking angry reactions on Thursday from users who were unable to share the piece, with some calling it “internet censorship”.

Facebook clarified that the report by former envoy Satyabrata Pal was mistakenly labeled as spam and had since been restored, but it failed to tamp down speculation on internet forums that it took down the article because of the close relationship between its CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Modi.

Pal said he wrote the piece “When Mr Modi Went To London” for The Wire to “keep the record straight” about the BJP leader’s visit to London as chief minister of Gujarat, asserting that the trip was a “nerve-racking and politically fraught affair” unlike what Modi recently said.

The incident comes at a time when Zuckerberg, who hosted the PM at Facebook’s Silicon Valley headquarters in September, is trying hard to woo the Indian government to push his company’s controversial Free Basics (formerly Internet.org) project in India.

Pal, who was India’s deputy high commissioner in London during Modi’s visit to the UK over a decade ago, had challenged in the article the PM’s recent statement that he was “warmly received” by his hosts in the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots.

“The British government’s reaction was neither warm nor respectful; it was deeply upset, for a number of reasons,” he wrote. “With its Muslim population already embittered over Iraq and the Islamophobia unleashed by the War on Terror, the last thing it wanted was a visitor who would alienate them even more and drive a wedge between its immigrant communities.”