New Delhi: The hashtag #ResignModi was blocked on Facebook for several hours on Wednesday, effectively censoring over 12,000 posts criticizing the BJP government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis.
Facebook, however, restored it later. The social media giant clarified it was removed “by mistake” and that the government had not requested it to do so.
Facebook’s Andy Stone has posted, “This hashtag has been restored and we are looking into what happened.”
The hashtag was restored around 1 20 am on Thursday.
“We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to and have since restored it,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
The Ministry of Electronics and IT also issued a statement clarifying that they had asked Facebook to remove the hashtag.
Netizens have lashed out on Facebook and the BJP for this.
