Facebook Inc.'s Instagram application | Photo: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg
Facebook Inc.'s Instagram application | Photo: Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg
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New Delhi: Users on Facebook and its photo sharing social media app Instagram have in the past 24 hours complained that the sites were blocking the hashtag #Sikh at a time the community was remembering Operation Bluestar.

Operation Bluestar was a military operation that occurred between 1-8 June 1984, when then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ordered the Indian Army to flush out militant Sikh leader Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and his armed supporters ensconced in the Golden Temple in Amritsar. The operation led to over 700 casualties and severe damage was caused to the Akhal Takht, the chief centre of Sikhism.

On the 36th anniversary of Operation Bluestar, several people commemorated the day on social media, however, many users on Twitter pointed out that they could not search #Sikh on Instagram.

Ravinder Singh, founder and CEO of the NGO Khalsa Aid, was one of the first to point this out.

Poet and author Rupi Kaur directly called out “the hypocrisy of Facebook’s approach to free speech,” and attacked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for saying the company’s principles “prohibit him from blocking Trump as he incites violence & hate”.

The Sikh Press Association also said, “In the same week that #Neverforget1984 trends on Twitter, Instagram seemingly conspires to suppress the truth about the atrocities of the 1984 Sikh genocide by censoring the faith of 27 million people.”

Instagram issues apology

As more tweets about the issue were posted, Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram and former head of News Feed, said, “Not sure what’s going on here, but we’re looking into it and will circle back. Thanks for calling it out.”

The hashtag was later restored on Instagram but continued to remain blocked for many Facebook users.

“Not sure how the #Sikh hashtag ended up blocked. It’s now unblocked on Instagram, we are working to unblock it on Facebook, and we’re investigating why this happened,” Mosseri added.

Instagram also issued an apology saying, “This is an incredibly important, painful time for the Sikh community. We designed hashtags to allow people to come together and share with one another. It’s never our intention to silence the voices of this community, we are taking the necessary steps so this doesn’t happen again.”

Facebook’s censured past

This isn’t the first instance of Facebook censuring content. It has blocked content such as  anti-Trump ads while Instagram has done so recently with posts related to the #BlackLivesMatter movement.

However, the latest instance comes at a time Facebook has actively claimed it will not act as a fact-checker and censure apparently offending content. Zuckerberg and Facebook have been receiving much criticism for deciding not to take down posts by US President Donald Trump that many claimed incited violence. Twitter, on the other hand, had fact-checked Trump’s tweets, irking the president who signed an executive order that reduced liability protections for tech giants.

In a company-wide virtual meeting, Zuckerberg reportedly said he “couldn’t justify saying that the message clearly incited violence, which means it didn’t break Facebook’s rules”. Many Facebook employees quit their jobs after this.

Following Twitter’s actions on Trump’s tweets, Zuckerberg said he disagreed with the micro-blogging site’s efforts and said, “I just believe strongly that Facebook shouldn’t be the arbiter of truth of everything that people say online,” in an interview with Fox.

“Private companies probably shouldn’t be, especially these platform companies, shouldn’t be in the position of doing that,” he added without naming Twitter.