Facebook briefly hid posts calling for PM Modi's resignation, says it was a mistake

Facebook has said that it hid certain posts because it found them violating the community guidelines.

Facebook made some posts asking for Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s resignation from office, hidden from public viewing for a brief time in India, at a time when the country is grappling with the Covid-19 crisis. Facebook said that it did that “by mistake” and not because the Indian government asked it so. This is the second incident where voices critical of the ruling government were snubbed, especially in the middle of the crisis that has made India an epicentre of the pandemic. A few days back, Twitter had to hide as many as 50 posts that were critical of the government's manner of handling the Covid-19 situation in India, in response to the government's order. As BuzzFeed News has pointed out, Facebook Wednesday hid posts containing the hashtag or text “#ResignModi” entirely in India. The social media giant said it did that because “some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.” People in India could not view these posts, but, according to BuzzFeed News, those in the US, Canada, or the UK could see them with a simple search. These posts remained hidden for about three hours, but after the first report on this was out, Facebook allowed these posts to be seen in India, backtracking on its previous decision related to community guideline violations. On that, Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told BuzzFeed News, “We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it.”