FB blocks page of Kashmiri magazine

Facebook on Sunday blocked the official page of a local Kashmir weekly and deleted a post of its cover showing slain militant Burhan Wani for not “following community standards”, shocking its editors who demanded immediate restoration of the page.

Kashmir Ink, a sister publication of the Valley’s leading English daily Greater Kashmir, had shared the cover of their latest issue, which has a sketch of Wani and the headline Kashmir: A year after Burhan’s death.

“The issue, as is evident from the cover, talks about the current situation in Kashmir after a year of an incident which rattled the Valley. And whose ripples refuse to ebb still,” said noted political cartoonist Suhail H Naqshbandi, whose sketch of Wani was on the cover. He said “some ignoramus folks” reported the post to Facebook authorities who decided to censor it.

A message from Facebook said the temporary block will last for 24 hours, and “you won’t be able to post on Facebook until it’s finished”. “We removed the post below because it doesn’t follow the Facebook Community Standards,” the message said, warning that those who “repeatedly post things that aren’t allowed on Facebook may have their accounts permanently disabled”.

“This is completely unjustified,” said Majid Maqbool, the executive editor of Kashmir Ink, adding that Facebook did not give any prior intimation before taking the extreme step. He also said “we had Burhan Wani on our front cover earlier in the year as well, but the official Facebook page was not blocked nor was the cover image removed”.

“Our official page should be restored soon so that our online readers are able to see and access the latest issue,” he demanded.

Facebook has removed several posts in the past which were supposedly sympathetic to Kashmiri militancy. The action came a day after authorities banned internet in the region to check any untoward incident on the occasion of Wani’s death anniversary.