ISLAMABAD: Under the pressure of the Indian authorities, Facebook blocked the account of a young human rights activist and Islamabad based researcher Mr. Abdul Basit Khan (fb.com/abdulbasitkhanofficial1) for Kashmir related posts, already many times his account was suspended

Mr. Khan (@abdulbasitkhan_) tweets that “Facebook supporting the Indian agenda. Social media platforms, under the pressure of the Indian government, started shutting down Kashmir-related pages and the accounts of Kashmiri activists. Why are social media platforms silencing Kashmiri voices by suspending the account of Kashmiri activists and organizations, social networks are siding with undemocratic forces”.

Mr. Khan said that Facebook comes amid India’s unprecedented campaign to silence Kashmiri voices, strip the Kashmiri people of their rights and remove the Kashmir issue from the international agenda altogether. It is in this in dire situation that platforms like Facebook are choosing to side with the repressive Indian government, which – amid its rising authoritarianism – still claims to be democratic. By doing the bidding of the Indian government, Facebook have gone against their own “commitment to freedom of expression” and to “defending and respecting the user’s voice”.