Meta on Thursday temporarily suspended the Instagram account of right-wing news outlet Opindia on charges of violating its policy. The suspension was reinstated shortly after.
The exact reasons for the suspension were not publicly detailed by Meta. However, a pop-up message stated that OpIndia’s handle may have violated policies related to the buying, selling or exchange of items such as animal parts, tobacco, alcohol, or drugs.
The suspension of OpIndia’s Instagram account comes amid increased scrutiny of social media platforms regarding their handling of hate speech and misinformation.
Following the suspension, OpIndia editor Nupur Sharma posted screenshots of the review request and announced that the website had been restored.
OpIndia has often garnered backlash for its reporting tendency to communalise incidents and manipulate facts to fit a suitable narrative for its website. For instance, there have been cases where the outlet provided religious affiliation of the suspects in criminal matters while negligence religious profile of Hindus involved in similar cases.
This selective reporting has been criticized and sighted for bias and has been a cause of deepening social upheaval in society.
| Posted by Sayima Ahmad | 
