An international Sikh news portal has alleged that content related to the Sikh community is being censored by social media platform Facebook.
An article on the website of the news portal Sikh24 claims that the hashtag #sikh has been blocked by the social media giant in what the news organisation claims is an attempt at “silencing the international Sikh community”.
The Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF) has reportedly received communication from Facebook, acknowledging the blocking of the hashtag #Sikh on Instagram and Facebook. SALDEF is planning to meet with Facebook to address this issue in the coming weeks.
This is not an issue the community is facing for the first time. In June 2015, Sikh24 reported that it was amongst various organizations that had their Facebook pages blocked in India.
The issue cropped up in March 2020 as well when Facebook and Instagram blocked the hashtag #Sikh for nearly three months before unblocking it in June and claiming that the block was made “mistakenly”.
