Meta has banned the widely followed Instagram account @Muslim in India after a government order, following a recent surge in censorship efforts by the Modi administration in light of renewed conflict with Pakistan.
India intensified its crackdown on online content deemed "anti-national" hours after launching missiles against nine sites in Pakistan. The crackdown targeted Pakistani celebrities, social media accounts and now, influential news pages, User Mag reported.
Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated after an April terror attack in Kashmir, India, killed 26 people.
Among the most recent casualties of this censorship drive is @Muslim, a news platform run by Palestinian American journalist Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh.
"I received hundreds of messages, emails and comments from our followers in India, that they cannot access our account," Al-Khatahtbeh said in an Instagram statement. "This is censorship. @Muslim was created with the objective of building community, informing others about our faith, and sharing content in real time of stories that affects our ummah."
The account, which has garnered over 866 million views and serves as a vital news source for the global Muslim community, was restricted after being labeled problematic by Indian authorities. The move effectively cuts off access to the page for India's 200 million Muslims—one of the largest Muslim populations in the world.
The National Council on American-Islamic Relations condemned the restriction, calling it a dangerous precedent for religious and political censorship.
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