Trouble in Kashmir spills over Facebook

Even as mobile services including the internet has been suspended and newspaper publications banned in Kashmir, Facebook users in other locations have accused Facebook of indiscriminately censoring some “pro-Kashmir” updates and photos, while it also disabled few accounts.

A number of users including a local English daily posted screenshots of the Facebook messages informing the netizens their posts have been removed for violating Facebook’s “Community Standards.” Users keeping slain militant Burhan Wani’s photos as profile pictures also complained the social media website had taken it down.

A video of Hurriyat Conference Chairman Syed Ali Geelani’s arrest by the police last Wednesday posted by a local daily Kashmir Monitor was removed for violation. “The day after we uploaded the video a message was received the video has been removed. It was surprising because this has never happened before,” said Mubashir Bukhari, a journalist with the paper.

Dibyesh Anand, a professor of International Relations at the University of Westminster said he was blocked from posting on Facebook last week and after he complained he was told the post was accidentally removed by a member of their team.

Facebook also disabled the account of Huma Dar, a lecturer at the University of California, Berkely for her pro-Burhan posts. A Kashmir-based satire page Jajeer Talkies with 27500 plus likes was also blocked on July 13 and later restored albeit without any content. “The accounts of all 3 admins were also disabled, giving us no chance whatsoever to appeal or respond to this deletion,” a petition, put up by the owners on change.org asking for full restoration of the page, reads.