Facebook Says It Temporarily Hid Posts Concerning Indian Prime MInister, Didn't Block Them

Facebook users on Wednesday were unable to view posts with a hashtag that called for the resignation of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi amid the Covid-19 crisis in India.

On Wednesday, Facebook said that posts with the hashtag or text #ResignModi “are temporarily hidden here” because “some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.”

It's unclear what content violated the rules of the company. The posts were hidden for about three hours. Then Facebook restored them. “We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told BuzzFeed News.

This comes after the Indian government asked Twitter to block access to over 50 tweets that slammed Modi’s handling of the pandemic in the country. Soon, Twitter was criticized over deletion of critical Covid 19 tweets in India.

"Suppression of information and criticism of government is not only dangerous for India but it is putting people around the world at risk,” said Mirza Saaib Beg, a lawyer whose tweets were among those withheld, reported The Guardian.

"Freedom of inquiry is an intrinsic part of freedom of speech and expression. These restrictions are further reflective of the weakening of all institutional spaces in India,” added Beg.

About 17.5 million Indians have Twitter accounts.

In a recent transparency report for the six months to June 30, 2020, Twitter said that it had received 42,220 legal requests to remove content from 53 countries. Such demands mostly came from five countries, including Russia, India and Turkey.

Meanwhile, Modi updated his Twitter followers about his recent interaction with Russian President Vladimir Putin. He thanked Putin for Russia's aid in India's battle against the pandemic.

"Had an excellent conversation with friend President Putin today. We discussed the evolving COVID-19 situation, and I thanked President Putin for Russia's help and support in India's fight against the pandemic. @KremlinRussia_E," Modi tweeted on Wednesday.

They also reviewed "our diverse bilateral cooperation, especially in the area of space exploration and renewable energy sector, including in hydrogen economy. Our cooperation on Sputnik-V vaccine will assist humanity in battling the pandemic."

He shared that to add further momentum to "our strong strategic partnership, President Putin and I have agreed to establish a 2+2 Ministerial Dialogue between our Foreign and Defence Ministers."