By Tarushi Aswani
New Delhi: On August 5, Meta Platforms’ Chief Global Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan apologised for briefly restricting a post by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in July. But amid this apology, Meta has unleashed a heightened censorship spree.
“I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi’s post,” Kaplan said after meeting with Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
Last month, Ministry of Information and Technology had summoned Meta executives after Facebook briefly restricted a post by Modi. Meta said the post had been blocked inadvertently because of an operational error.
Last week, Hyderabad Police also registered a case against Meta India head Arun Srinivas over videos posted on Facebook that allegedly depicted Modi in an “abusive manner”.
Meta has initiated a series of takedowns on a growing list of journalists, politicians, media organisations and political commentators who today find their content or accounts restricted, often with little explanation.
On August 6, former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said Meta had restricted his Instagram account in India. He said he had repeatedly sought an explanation from the company but received no response.
The Wire has faced multiple restrictions in recent months.
Facebook and Instagram on August 7 withheld The Wire‘s posts on Nikhil Gupta’s sentencing hearing in a US federal court being postponed because the man he allegedly conspired to have killed, Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has requested to be present in the hearing. Recently, Instagram withheld The Wire‘s post sharing its article on how the Nah Welfare Society alleged that the Chinese Army has been encroaching on Indian territory near the Taksing village in Arunachal Pradesh’s Upper Subansiri district.
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
