FB blocked anti-mod i posts ‘in error’
FACEBOOK has claimed it mistakenly blocked posts calling for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the alleged Covid-19 pandemic mismanagement, saying the company did not hide the posts at the behest of the government.
Buzzfeed News first reported that Facebook temporarily hid posts with the hashtag or text #Resignmodi because “some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards”.
The Facebook users who tried to view the hashtag saw a message saying that Facebook was temporarily hiding the posts in order to keep the community safe.
In a statement given to The Verge, Facebook said it had restored the posts and the hashtag was blocked “by mistake”.
The company said that the Indian government did not ask to remove the hashtag.
Facebook also said that the block was the result of some of the content that used the hashtag, “but did not specify what kind of content”.
Earlier this week, Twitter pulled down at least 50 tweets at the behest of the Indian government, that criticised the government for the poor handling of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
The data available on Lumen database showed that Twitter deleted more than 50 tweets that belonged to people like Revanth Reddy, an MP from Telangana; Moloy Ghatak, a West Bengal state minister; two film-makers, an actor and others.
A Twitter spokesperson said that when it received a valid legal request, it reviewed it under the Twitter rules and local law.
“If the content violates Twitter's rules, the content will be removed from the service.” |