Skip to main content

Alleging Facebook censorship, Gujarat rights activist, top Delhi journalist point to temporary "ban" on posts

Screenshot on which Sinha commented
By Our Representative
Gujarat's young human rights activist and social media campaigner Pratik Sinha has said that Facebook has "banned" him again, this time for three days. Reason, according to him, is a comment on the screentshot of a tweet by well-known Narendra Modi-supporter and commentator Minhas Merchant.
Sinha's comment (March 23) had just said, “Why are Indian Muslims not giving us a chance to spit Venom like these ISIS people do? Because, basically they are Hindu. But send them to Pakistan. :P”, making him wonder what was objectionable in this.
The three-day "ban" on Sinha's timeline, https://www.facebook.com/freethinker, comes a day after one of the senior-most Indian journalists, Seema Mustafa, declared in a Facebook post (11.30 am, March 24), "Facebook has blocked The Citizen's lead story on the police crackdown on Hyderabad Central University, following which PhD scholar Uday Bhanu was admitted in ICU, asking her friends and supporters to widely spread Please share the following link widely."
Mustafa reported, "We are not being allowed to share the link, so please visit www.thecitizen.in for the full details on how the Hyderabad University administration cut off food, water, internet supplies; restricted entry into campus; and brought in the police who mercilessly beat up students. Please share the link to the story directly from our website."
Uday Bhanu
She said, "To fight instigated Facebook censorship please click on www.thecitizen.in. This will take you straight to the story that FB has been made to Block about the Hyderabad Central University being converted into a war zone, with students attacked, beaten, arrested, and one student admitted in ICU for trying to cook to feed the hungry students."
After waiting for almost 12 hours, the ban on Facebook page was removed, with Mustafa saying, "Thank you all for the support and for sharing the links that we had put out. We have just been told by our tech team that the post has now been restored by Facebook so clearly the loud complaints, and the fact that the news could not be suppressed, finally worked."
Referring to how  he was "banned" for a day a month ago, Sinha said, he had just posted was an info-graphic "which was actually an accurate depiction of history". In a report on his site,  www.truthofgujarat.com, Sinha says, "Can somebody tell me, how can the above post be against Facebook’s community standards? And if you think that was an exception, then check the next image for which I was banned by Facebook about a month ago."
The image on Sinha's Facebook timeline which led to the previous one-day ban
Suspecting that "some Modi followers didn’t like it and reported it", wonders Sinha, "How does Facebook decide that this is against their community standards? This is documented history. Yet, my post was removed and I was banned for a day."
Calling it a "tyrannical behaviour" not limited to "one person", Sinha adds, "Many in my friend circle have reported this problem again and again and again. Just yesterday, Facebook unpublished a parody account of Subramanian Swamy which was called 'Unofficial: Subramaniam Swamy' and used to operate at the URL 'https://www.facebook.com/sususwamy'."
Pointing out that the Facebook's parody account of Swamy "had over 180,000 followers", Sinha says, it was removed despite the fact that the image it had posted was of a Sufi Saint’s shrine in Deva Shareef, Uttar Pradesh, showing Muslims playing Holi.
Subramaniam Swamy parody
Facebook page banned
"This image was posted on the above page with a sarcastic comment which was along the lines of 'How can Muslims celebrate our festival'. This page in question deals with a lot of sarcasm with no intention of hurting anyone’s feelings. Yet Facebook found something objectionable in the post and not just deleted the post but unpublished the entire Facebook page", Sinha says.
"So, when Facebook says that it stands for Freedom of Expression (FOE), what sort of FOE are they referring to? If documented history is not FOE, if personal commentary on a post is not FOE, if sarcasm not intending to hurt anyone’s feelings is not FOE, then what exactly is Facebook’s definition of FOE?", asks Sinha.
"I sent them an email last time around and I never got a response. I have sent them one this time too and I don’t have much hope. While Facebook has made a great platform, they are making the life of its users miserable by their random censorship", Sinha comments, adding, "Since they are a growing platform, they may not feel the need to address the grievances of their users/customers but it would surely come back to bite them when the going is not good."

Comments

TRENDING

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Central pollution watchdog sees red in Union ministry labelling waste to energy green

By Chythenyen Devika Kulasekaran*  “Destructors”, “incinerators” and “waste-to-energy (WTE) incineration” all mean the same thing – indiscriminate burning of garbage! Having a history of about one and a half centuries, WTE incinerators have seen several reboots over the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries. 

First-of-its-kind? 'Eco-friendly, low cost' sewage treatment system installed in Gujarat

Counterview Desk Following the installation of the Unconventional Decentralized Multi-Stage Reactor (UDMSR) for sewage treatment, a note on what is claimed to be the  first-of-its-kind technology said, the treated sewage from this system “can be directly utilized for agricultural purposes”, even as proving to be a “saviour in the times of water crisis.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Indo-Bangla border: Farmers facing 'illegal obstacles' in harvesting, transporting yields

  Counterview Desk  In a representation to the chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, human rights defender Kirity Roy, who is secretary, Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM), has said that Border Security Force (BSF) personnel are creating "illegal obstacles" for farmers seeking to harvest their ripened yields and transport them to the market in village Jhaukuthi of Cooch Behar district.

Wasteland, a colonial legacy, being used to 'give away' vast tracts to Ratnagiri refinery

By Fouziya Tehzeeb* William D’Souza, a 55-year old farmer from Kuthethur, Mangalore, was busy mixing cattle feed when we arrived at his doorsteps. Around 25 km from the bustling city of Mangalore, Kuthethur is a lush green village with thick vegetation. On the way to William’s house the idyllic view gets blocked by the flares and smoke arising from the Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL).

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview  story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded  reaction  in the form of a  link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

CAA disregards India's inclusive plural ethos, 'betrays' ideals of freedom struggle: PUCL

Counterview Desk    "Outraged" at the move of the Central government to implement the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA 2019) weeks before the election, the top rights group, People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), has demanded that the law be repealed. 

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Sections of BSF, BGB personnel 'directly or indirectly' involved in cross border smuggling

By Kirity Roy*  The Border Security Force (BSF) of India and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) of Bangladesh met for 54th Director General level meeting at Dhaka, Bangladesh, on 5th to 9th March, 2024 to discuss on minimizing killings at border area, illegal intrusion, trafficking of drugs and other narcotics, smuggling of arms and ammunitions and other crimes at bordering areas. Further, the summit had an agenda to discuss on overall development in 150 yards area at both sides of the border and design an activity plan for the same.