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Kerala Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala said on Tuesday, August 18, that neither the state government nor the Police Department has requested Meta to remove from Facebook any news critical of Chief Minister VD Satheesan or the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) government.
Meta recently sparked a major political controversy in Kerala by removing and restricting multiple news cards and social media posts critical of Chief Minister Satheesan and the UDF government.
“The Kerala government or the Police have not asked Meta to remove any news cards. They themselves did it. We have not officially or unofficially requested anything. If we were to spend time asking about such things, that would be the only thing we would have time for,” Ramesh Chennithala told the media.
When the Reporter news channel raised grievances, Meta replied that the takedown was executed in compliance with “local legal requirements, rather than due to a technical error”. “Regardless of whether the content was removed or restricted automatically, Meta is required to comply with local law, and the nature of the restriction here is a "local legal requirement." Since your page is based in India, a formal grievance process is necessary,” the Meta reply read.
The incident occurred in mid-August, and major Malayalam news channels, including Reporter TV and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] mouthpiece Kairali News, reported that Meta had taken down more than 20 news updates from their Facebook page.
The removed content reportedly included critical political reports, such as the arrest of Youth Congress workers in a synthetic drug (MDMA) peddling case. Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan had said that his post questioning the government over the arrest of a person who claimed to be the CM’s social media coordinator in an MDMA case was also removed from social media.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) condemned the alleged removal of news reports critical of the government from social media platforms, calling the practice undemocratic and a threat to press freedom.
The Chief Minister denied these allegations and said the government had no involvement in this, stating he lacked any influence over Meta.
According to reports, Meta initially told the news organisations that the blocks were enacted due to restriction requests from the legal system and India's IT rules. Later, Meta said that it was a technical glitch.
