Facebook temporarily blocks posts with hashtag #ResignModi

The social media giant said these posts were temporarily blocked due to a mistake and were not taken down on government orders.

Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday temporarily blocked posts with a hashtag calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on its platform. The blocking comes a couple of days after the Indian which it believed were done to create panic about the COVID-19 situation in India by “using unrelated, communally sensitive posts and misinformation”. Following this, microblogging website Twitter had removed over 50 posts from its platform. A majority of these tweets were critical of the Centre’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and had content related to shortage of medicine, beds, mass cremations, and the gathering of crowds at Kumbh Mela. As per The Guardian, Facebook’s temporary block led to hiding of about 12,000 posts highlighting the plight of patients and families dealing with the pandemic amid shortage of beds and medicines.