Meta blocks access to Muslim news page in India
A Muslim news page was banned on Instagram in India following the worst violence between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in two decades (Justin TALLIS) (Justin TALLIS/AFP/AFP)
Meta has banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the government's request, the account's founder said Wednesday, denouncing the move as "censorship" as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.
Instagram users in India trying to access posts from the handle @Muslim -- a page with 6.7 million followers -- were met with a message stating: "Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content."
There was no immediate reaction from the Indian government on the ban, which comes after access was blocked to the social media accounts of Pakistani actors and cricketers.
"I received hundreds of messages, emails and comments from our followers in India, that they cannot access our account," Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh, the news account's founder and editor-in-chief, said in a statement.
ADVERTISEMENT
"Meta has blocked the @Muslim account by legal request of the Indian government. This is censorship."
Meta declined to comment. A spokesman for the tech giant directed AFP to a company webpage outlining its policy for restricting content when governments believe material on its platforms goes "against local law."
The development, first reported by the US tech journalist Taylor Lorenz' outlet User Magazine, comes in the wake of the worst violence between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in two decades.
Both countries have exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival.
At least 43 deaths were reported in the fighting, which came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-run side of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
ADVERTISEMENT
Pakistan rejects the charge and has warned it will "avenge" those killed by Indian air strikes.
The @Muslim account is among the most followed Muslim news sources on Instagram. Khatahtbeh apologized to followers in India, adding: "When platforms and countries try to silence media, it tells us that we are doing our job in holding those in power accountable."
"We will continue to document the truth and stand out firmly for justice," he added, while calling on Meta to reinstate the account in India.
India has also banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading "provocative" content, including Pakistani news outlets.
In recent days, access to the Instagram account of Pakistan's former prime minister and cricket captain Imran Khan has also been blocked in India.
ADVERTISEMENT
Pakistani Bollywood movie regulars Fawad Khan and Atif Aslam were also off limits in India, as well as a wide range of cricketers -- including star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and retired players Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram.
Rising hostilities between the South Asian neighbors have also unleashed an avalanche of online misinformation, with social media users circulating everything from deepfake videos to outdated images from unrelated conflicts, falsely linking them to the Indian strikes.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for India and Pakistan to immediately halt their fighting, and offered to help end the violence.
bur-ac/sla
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
41 minutes ago
- New York Post
Trump keeps door open to Iran nuclear deal after Israel strikes: ‘Maybe now it will happen'
WASHINGTON — President Trump suggested Friday that he has not given up on reaching a revised nuclear agreement with Iran, despite Israel's spectacular attack targeting the Islamic Republic's military and enrichment facilities hours earlier. 'Maybe now they will negotiate seriously,' the president told Axios in a brief interview following a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ahead of an all-day meeting with this national security team. 'They should have made a deal,' Trump added. 'I couldn't get them to a deal in 60 days. They were close, they should have done it. Maybe now it will happen.' The Israeli strikes came days before a scheduled sixth round of indirect talks between US special Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian officials. 'Oftentimes,' a source to the White House told The Post of the administration's thinking Friday, 'pain is the best form of persuasion.' 4 Trump indicated he thinks the Israeli strikes on Iran may bring them to the negotiating table. AFP via Getty Images Trump, 78, also indicated in a series of Truth Social posts that he was hopeful Iran would still come to the negotiating table, despite the devastating impact of the Israeli attack. 'There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being more brutal, come to an end,' Trump wrote early Friday morning. 'Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian empire.' 4 A damaged high-rise building that was hit by Israeli air strikes, north of Tehran, Iran, 13 June 2025. ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock 4 Fire and smoke rise from a building, reportedly hit by a missile fired from Iran, in central Tel Aviv on June 13, 2025. AFP via Getty Images 4 An explosion is seen during a missile attack in Tel Aviv, Israel, Friday, June 13, 2025. AP Also Friday morning, Trump claimed in a phone interview with The Post that he 'always knew the date' for Israel to strike Iran if a quick agreement could not be reached. 'I gave them 60 days and they didn't meet it,' he said. 'Today's [day] 61, you know. Today's day 61.' Iran has yet to show signs of agreeing to any deal that would halt their nuclear program — even for civilian purposes, as the US desires. Friday evening, Tehran launched at least 150 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, causing at least 15 injuries and damaging parts of downtown Tel Aviv. 'The Zionist regime has made a big mistake, a grave error, committed a reckless act. By God's grace, the consequences of this will bring that regime to ruin,' Iran's leader Ayatollah Khomeini warned in a televised address. 'The Iranian nation won't permit the blood of its valued martyrs to go unavenged, nor will it ignore the violation of its airspace,' the dictator threatened. Netanyahu responded in an English-language address meant for the Iranian people, in which he warned the theocratic regime: 'In the past 24 hours, we've taken out top military commanders, senior nuclear scientists, the Islamic regime's most significant enrichment facility, and a large portion of its ballistic missile arsenal. More is on the way. 'The regime doesn't know what hit them,' Netanyahu added. 'They don't know what will hit them.'
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Only survivor of deadly Air India plane crash says survival was a 'miracle'
Viswashkumar Ramesh, the lone survivor from the flight that crashed shortly after taking off from the Indian city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, described his survival as a "miracle" while speaking to DD India. "I can't explain," he said. The Boeing 787-8 crash had been bound for London Gatwick Airport, Air India explained in a post on X, which noted that there were 242 people on the flight, but "241 confirmed fatalities." Air India Flight Bound For London Crashes, Airline Confirms 1 Survivor And 241 Fatalities Without naming him in the post, the airline noted that the individual who survived "is a British national of Indian origin." "When I got up, there were bodies all around me. I was scared," Ramesh told the Hindustan Times, according to the outlet. Read On The Fox News App Ramesh told DD News that he "saw people dying," reports indicate. Boeing Shares Slide After Air India Crash Indian Prime Minister Narenda Modi met with Ramesh after the tragic crash. "Air India offers its deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. Our efforts now are focused entirely on the needs of all those affected, their families and loved ones," the airline noted in its post on X. Reagan National Airport To Halt Flights For Trump-hosted Military Parade Next Week "Our deepest condolences go out to the loved ones of the passengers and crew on board Air India Flight 171, as well as everyone affected in Ahmedabad," Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg said in a statement. "I have spoken with Air India Chairman N. Chandrasekaran to offer our full support, and a Boeing team stands ready to support the investigation led by India's Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau," he article source: Only survivor of deadly Air India plane crash says survival was a 'miracle'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Supporters of deported Venezuelans denied visit to Salvadoran jail
Supporters of Venezuelans deported by the United States to El Salvador said Friday they had been refused permission to see the migrants in prison. The spurned group included the first family member of a detainee to come to the Central American nation in hopes of establishing contact with them. More than 250 Venezuelans were expelled by the United States to El Salvador in March after being accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua criminal gang. "I came with great hope," Jhoanna Sanguino, the aunt of 24-year-old Widmer Agelvis Sanguino, told AFP shortly before leaving El Salvador. "I promised my sister that her boy would soon be free, and I promised many mothers. I don't want them to lose faith. We were so close, yet so far away," she said. Sanguino was accompanied by Reina Cardenas, a friend of deportee Andry Hernandez Romero, and activists from the Amparo Foundation, a human rights NGO providing legal support to some of the Venezuelans. They said their request to visit the migrants in the high-security CECOT prison built by President Nayib Bukele to house gang members was unsuccessful. US President Donald Trump invoked rarely used wartime laws to fly many of the migrants to El Salvador without holding any court hearings. His administration struck a deal to pay the government of ally Bukele millions of dollars to hold the deportees in prison. "There are 252 Venezuelans whose families are crying and fighting for them," said Sanguino. Relatives are waiting in Venezuela for "some contact, by phone or a letter, some proof of life," she said. A law firm hired by Caracas to represent some of the other detained Venezuelans also says that it has been denied access. mis/fj/dr/acb
