Facebook temporarily blocked protest page that supported farmers

The pages were restored three hours later

Dec 21, 2020 05:00:00 AM | Article | Campaign India Team Share -

Picture courtesy: Yogendra Yadav's Twitter

Facebook blocked access to Kisan Ekta Morcha, a page created to support farmers, as protests against new Government laws continue in India.

The pages were blocked on Facebook and Instagram after a live broadcast and restored around three hours later.

When users tried to access the page on Facebook, a message appeared which read:

The page was unpublished because 'Kisan Ekta Morcha' goes against our Community Standards on spam.

In midst of a Facebook Live I was doing from Kisan Ekta Morcha's page, we get a notification that the FB page has been unpublished.

There must be something about farmers that this govt is particularly scared of & something about this govt that Facebook is particularly scared of https://t.co/yYCZu6r3UR pic.twitter.com/xjnpS7nRRi
— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) December 20, 2020

On Instagram, admins were not being allowed to share new posts.

After reactivating the page, media reports quoted a Facebook spokesperson: "We've restored Kisan Ekta Morcha's FB page and regret the inconvenience caused."