Social media giants accused of ‘silencing’ Kashmir voices

Twitter, Facebook and Instagram are taking down accounts of Kashmiris, a report by a Kashmiri diaspora group says.

A report by a Kashmiri diaspora group has accused social media giants Twitter, Facebook and Instagram of silencing Kashmiri voices in the digital spaces through the frequent suspension of the accounts of artists, academics, and journalists based in and outside the disputed region, a move termed by experts as “reprehensible”.

A 30-page report by the Stand With Kashmir (SWK), titled “How social media corporations enable silence on Kashmir”, claims that since 2017, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media platforms have continually silenced Kashmir-related content.

In August 2019, when the Indian government scrapped the region’s semi-autonomous status, it imposed a sweeping communication and internet shutdown in the region. The shutdown continued for months – the longest internet suspension that took place in a democracy, according to Access Now, an international organisation that tracks internet access around the world.