Facebook has censored dozens of posts and user
accounts after the death of a high-profile Kashmiri separatist militant, who
was killed by the Indian army earlier this month.
Academics,
journalists and the pages of local newspapers are among those who have had
photos, videos and entire accounts deleted by Facebook after they posted about
recent events in the disputed territory.
Burhan Wani, a senior
member of the Hizbul Mujahideen rebel group was killed
by the Indian army on 8 July. About 30
people died in the violent protests that spread across Kashmir in the
aftermath of the killing, and an indefinite
curfew has been introduced by the Indian government. Wani was considered a terrorist by the
Indian authorities, but a freedom fighter by many Kashmiris and Pakistanis.
Mobile
phone coverage, landlines and internet services were curbed throughout the
region, except in its main city of Srinagar, and police raided newspaper
offices, seizing thousands of printed copies.
Authorities
lifted a three-day publication ban on newspapers on Tuesday, but editors refuse
to resume printing until the government apologised.
Kashmiris
say that the information blackout has been exacerbated by censorship on
Facebook.
“There
are no papers and we only get two TV news channels,” said Zargar Yasir, a
Kashmiri blogger and PhD student who said his account was blocked for more than
a week, with some posts removed, after he linked to a self-authored blogpost
about Wani.
“When
there’s no news, usually we turn to social media for information. That way at
least we can talk to each other, we can ask our families and friends how they
are, if they are OK. But Facebook has taken my account down, so how do I do
that now?” said Yasir.
To
get round the government’s news ban, reporters have been updating the news
websites and posting on social media to keep people informed.
Mubashir
Bukhari, a journalist writing for a paper called Kashmir Monitor
said: “When I came into work yesterday, I saw that Facebook had removed a video
we had posted. The video showed Syed Ali Shah Ghelani, a separatist leader,
condemning the death of Burhan Wani. We have never had anything else removed
from our Facebook page.”
Without
credible information or access to communication channels there is an atmosphere
of uncertainty in the Muslim-majority region. “There are so many rumours flying
around, people saying ‘Did you hear about this man who died?’ when the man is
still alive. Or did you hear about that shooting here? When actually it
happened somewhere else,” said Yasir.
Social
media companies such as Facebook are under increasing pressure to limit the
spread of extremist propaganda – but have also faced criticism that they have
gone too far.
Rizwan
Sajid, whose account was blocked after he changed his profile picture to an
image of Burhan Wani, said Facebook’s actions amounted to Islamophobia. “Why is
it that only Muslims get blocked? Facebook is being one-sided by supporting the
atrocities committed by the Indian army. Other people can say whatever they
want, but if Muslims say something, we get blocked. It is not neutral.”
Huma
Dar, a Kashmiri academic in California, found that her profile had been deleted
without warning after she posted images of Wani’s funeral last Sunday. “The day
that Burhan was killed, I got messages from friends in India saying some of their photos had been
deleted. I thought it had something to do with the Indian government. I live a
mile and a half away from Facebook’s headquarters in America; I never thought
it would happen to me.”
Dar,
an academic at UC Berkley and California State who teaches a class about cinema
and terrorism, said: “Naturally I post about these things, and I use Facebook
as a place to discuss ideas.”
When
Dar wrote to Facebook about her account being deleted, she got a response
saying that her posts had “violated community standards. The email did not
mention which post specifically had led to the deletion of her account but
said, “One of our main priorities is the comfort and safety of the people who
use Facebook, and we don’t allow credible threats to harm others, support for
violent organizations or exceedingly graphic content on Facebook.”
“I
am very careful about what I post,” says Dar, who often writes about various
issues such as the Black Lives Matter movement or the war in Gaza. “The biggest
irony is that I get death threats, I get people saying they’ll come and rape me
and my mother. None of those people, even when I complain to Facebook, have
ever been censored.”
Dar
says she’s outraged by Facebook’s decision. “I use it a lot, I post articles
and papers for my students, and I run working groups for my research. Now my
students and the people who use those resources can’t access any of that. I
have poems that I wrote and I have long messages from friends who have now died
– those correspondences are gone forever and they were very precious to me.”
Dibyesh
Anand, an academic at the University of Westminster, had his posts removed, and
was blocked from using Facebook for 24 hours twice after he posted about Wani’s
death. “I’ve had two apology messages from Facebook, saying that the posts were
taken down accidentally.”
“This
definitely amounts to censorship because it makes people think twice before
they post something.”
In
a statement, Facebook said: “There is no place on Facebook for content that
praises or supports terrorists, terrorists organisations or terrorism. We
welcome discussion on these subjects but any terrorist content has to be
clearly put in context which condemns these organisations and or their violent
activities. Therefore, profiles and content supporting or praising Hizbul
Mujahideen and Burhan Wani are removed as soon as they are reported to us. In
this instance, some content was removed in error, but this has now been
restored.”
Representative Image
Source: The Guardian
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