#ResignModi: All you need to know about the social media row

Hours after blocking posts containing ‘#Resign Modi’ hashtag, Facebook on Thursday claimed it was an inadvertent error and not done at the behest of the government.

The social media company drew flak for censoring calls on the platform for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation over the spiraling crisis of coronavirus pandemic in India.

“We temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone said in a tweet on Thursday.

The blocking and unblocking of the posts came days after the Centre issued orders to take down over 100 “inflammatory” posts and accounts across Twitter, Facebook and Instagram related to Covid-19, including a verified Facebook page affiliated to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.