WASHINGTON: Meta has banned a prominent Muslim news page on Instagram in India at the government’s request, the account’s founder said Wednesday, denouncing the move as “censorship” as hostilities escalate between India and Pakistan.
Instagram users in India trying to access posts from the handle @Muslim — a page with 6.7 million followers — were met with a message stating: “Account not available in India. This is because we complied with a legal request to restrict this content.”
There was no immediate reaction from the Indian government on the ban, which comes after access was blocked to the social media accounts of Pakistani actors and cricketers.
“I received hundreds of messages, emails and comments from our followers in India, that they cannot access our account,” Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh, the news account’s founder and editor-in-chief, said in a statement.
“Meta has blocked the @Muslim account by legal request of the Indian government. This is censorship.”
Meta declined to comment. A spokesman for the tech giant directed AFP to a company webpage outlining its policy for restricting content when governments believe material on its platforms goes “against local law.”
The development, first reported by the US tech journalist Taylor Lorenz’ outlet User Magazine, comes in the wake of the worst violence between nuclear-armed India and Pakistan in two decades.
Both countries have exchanged heavy artillery fire along their contested frontier, after New Delhi launched deadly missile strikes on its arch-rival.
At least 43 deaths were reported in the fighting, which came two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-run side of the disputed Muslim-majority region of Kashmir.
Pakistan rejects the charge and has warned it will “avenge” those killed by Indian air strikes.
The @Muslim account is among the most followed Muslim news sources on Instagram. Khatahtbeh apologized to followers in India, adding: “When platforms and countries try to silence media, it tells us that we are doing our job in holding those in power accountable.”
“We will continue to document the truth and stand out firmly for justice,” he added, while calling on Meta to reinstate the account in India.
India has also banned more than a dozen Pakistani YouTube channels for allegedly spreading “provocative” content, including Pakistani news outlets.
In recent days, access to the Instagram account of Pakistan’s former prime minister and cricket captain Imran Khan has also been blocked in India.
Pakistani Bollywood movie regulars Fawad Khan and Atif Aslam were also off limits in India, as well as a wide range of cricketers — including star batters Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and retired players Shahid Afridi and Wasim Akram.
Rising hostilities between the South Asian neighbors have also unleashed an avalanche of online misinformation, with social media users circulating everything from deepfake videos to outdated images from unrelated conflicts, falsely linking them to the Indian strikes.
On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump called for India and Pakistan to immediately halt their fighting, and offered to help end the violence.
 

JAKARTA: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates said artificial intelligence will play a key role in unlocking new tools for health, education and agriculture at a meeting with Indonesia's president on Wednesday.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia's biggest economy and has a population of around 280 million across its sprawling archipelago, with a growing demand for data centres and AI tech in the region.
Gates visited President Prabowo Subianto and Indonesian philanthropists in the capital Jakarta, where he spoke about his optimism that AI-driven innovation will help tackle global challenges.
"AI is going to help us discover new tools. And even in the delivery of health and education and agriculture advice, we'll be using AI," he told a meeting.
"Once we finish (eradicting) polio, we'd like to try and eradicate measles and malaria as well. We have some new tools for that. And of course, part of my optimism about the innovation is because we have now artificial intelligence."
UN agencies have been campaigning for four decades to eradicate polio, most often spread through sewage and contaminated water.
The billionaire philanthropist has donated more than $159 million to Indonesia since 2009, mostly to the health sector including to fund vaccines, Prabowo said.
Gates later visited an elementary school in Jakarta alongside Prabowo to see students having free meals as part of a programme launched by the Indonesian leader.
Prabowo also announced plans to give Gates Indonesia's highest civilian award for his "contribution to the Indonesian people and the world".
Microsoft chief executive officer Satya Nadella last year pledged a $1.7 billion investment in AI and cloud computing to help develop Indonesia's AI infrastructure.