Facebook has apologised for blocking the news website ‘Naanu Gauri’, run by Gauri Media Trust in memory of slain editor-activist Gauri Lankesh.
Facebook not only blocked the page of the website on the platform, but also took it down and did not allow any posts with the URL. Following a social media campaign that alleged the website had become a target of the right-wing ecosystem online, the news portal was unblocked on Saturday night. “The URL www.naanugauri.com as well as the posts that mentioned the URL were removed in error (technical issue) and have now been restored. We apologise for the mistake,” a Facebook spokesperson told The Hindu.
H.V. Vasu, editor, Naanu Gauri, said this was not the first time the news portal had run into troubles with Facebook. “While our application for Facebook Instant articles was accepted, later clearance was withdrawn. There are questions of fair play and parity that these issues raise about Facebook, which we will continue to raise. We suspect the online right-wing ecosystem has campaigned against us by reporting the page. But it is expected of Facebook to have used their discretion and have a system in place to verify and not allow organised campaigns with malicious intent to lead to censorship on the platform,” he said.
