While Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were posing like two peas in a pod, as much of India cheered them on with their tri-colored display pictures on the world’s largest social network, a disturbing act of digital censorship was being carried out on the same platform.
In June this year, the Indian Atheists Facebook page was blocked for its users, before being unblocked within 48 hours, after mainstream media houses in India started to feature stories on emerging trends of digital censorship. That particular blocking took place at a time when the page’s administrators were critical of IIT Madras for its gag on the Ambedkar Periyar student circle and the ways in which the institute’s management was patronizing religious shamans and deniers of evolution, such as Chinna Jeeyar Swamy, by offering them the dais on campus.
However, last month, a similar act of digital censorship was carried out once again when the Indian Atheists-Debate Corner on Facebook was rendered inaccessible to its users in India.
A nondescript message greeted those who tried to access the page via Indian ISPs. The page was surprisingly available to users elsewhere. As soon as Indians could not access the abovementioned page, an online campaign started to gather momentum with hopes of having the embargo lifted. The page was eventually reinstated on November 13 even though other freethinker groups continue to remain blocked.
According to several media reports, Facebook blocked more than 5000 pages in India in 2014. This figure was higher than any other country’s in the entire world.
Ironically though, a quick search on Facebook would reveal hundreds of hate pages, propagating racist and caste-driven agenda. For some unexplained reason, these remain unchecked and continue to thrive. While hate groups do not seem to offend the fragile sentiments of either Facebook or Indians, opinions and views expressed by freethinkers, rationalists and critics of pseudo-science continue to fall victim to such arbitrary practices of digital censorship.
Photo Credits: India Today
