Kashmir on Facebook

What else can you expect from BJP governments in Delhi and Srinagar? Mobile and internet services are down, the print media gagged and printing presses sealed in the Kashmir valley. That’s the way the Indian government thinks it can strangle the voice of dissent in the valley. It prefers to go for disproportionate use of force to quell public protests.

But why did Facebook became a party in this conflict – standing next to the Indian government? A number of Kashmiri, Indian and non-Indian accounts discussing the unrest in Kashmir, posting pictures or videos of public protests and the atrocities meted out by paramilitary forces were suspended and their profiles blocked by Facebook. No one will disagree with Facebook if they block militants’ accounts and their profiles. But if Facebook thinks that those hundreds of young people facing lifelong blindness and disability, thanks to Indian forces using pellet guns, are militants and those bringing these atrocities to light are terrorists or their supporters, then sadly Facebook has become a party in the Kashmir conflict.

Masood Khan

Saudi Arabia