Didn’t Ask Facebook To Drop #ResignModi, Report “Mischievous”: Government

“A story by Wall Street Journal attributing removal of a certain hashtag by Facebook to GOI’s efforts to curb public dissent is misleading on facts and mischievous in intent,” the government said in a statement.

Didn't Ask Facebook To Drop #ResignModi, Report 'Mischievous': Government

The government referred to the report on March 5 that it said was “completely fake” and manufactured.



New Delhi:

A Wall Street Journal report that alleged that the temporary blocking of the hashtag #ResignModi was an attempt to curb public dissent was “misleading” and “mischievous”, the government said today, emphatically denying that it directed Facebook to do so.

“A story by Wall Street Journal attributing removal of a certain hashtag by Facebook to GOI’s efforts to curb public dissent is misleading on facts and mischievous in intent,” the government said in a statement.

“Government has not issued any direction to remove this hashtag. Facebook has also clarified that it was removed by mistake,” it said.

The government referred to a Wall Street Journal report on March 5 that it said was “completely fake” and manufactured.

“It is pertinent to mention that on 5th March 2021 also, Wall Street Journal had published a fake news with heading- “India Threatens Jail for Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter Employees”. Government had sent an official rebuttal of this completely fake and manufactured story to Wall Street Journal,” the statement said.

“Media has a very important role to play in acting as a force multiplier to the efforts of our front-line workers and medical professionals. At a sensitive time like this, we would urge the media to partner with crores of ordinary Indians as we collectively fight the pandemic.”

Posts tagged #ResignModi, mostly critical of the government’s handling of the escalating Covid crisis, were blocked for several hours before they were restored.

Facebook said it barred the hashtag by mistake. “We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it,” a spokesperson of the social networking site said.

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