In a shocking act of censorship, social networking site Facebook has targeted multiple Sikh accounts of individuals, organisations, and even Gurdwaras for posting about Sikh martyrs and Khalistan.
This censorship campaign coincides with the commemoration of the 1984 Sikh Genocide. An earlier campaign to censor Sikh content took place in June 2020 as Sikhs commemorated the June 1984 Indian army assault on the Sri Darbar Sahib [Golden Temple] complex in Amritsar.
In the current wave of censorship, content related to the Khalistan movement and prominent historical figures in the movement has been targeted in addition to posts critical of the Government of India.
In what the WSO said was one particularly appalling instance, Facebook censored the posting of a Times of India article about India embassies gathering data about the Sikh diaspora. Some pages have been removed completely while other users have been restricted for 30 or 60 days from posting or commenting on the social media platform.
The censoring of social media profiles has become an urgent issue free speech of Sikhs. Facebook and Instagram were both discovered to have blocked the #Sikh hashtag on their platforms in June this year.
The social media giants chose to block the hashtag at a time when Sikhs worldwide were commemorating the atrocities committed against Sikhs in India in June 1984. They then invited several Sikh organisations as “community stakeholders” to discuss the censorship. Facebook and Instagram officials attempted to explain what occurred when #Sikh was blocked, stating that it was down to what was described as a “perfect storm” of mistakes after a “malicious” attack was made against the word to have it blacklisted through pornographic posts.
However, this latest act by Facebook throws the integrity of those words into question yet again. Many Sikhs believe that the censorship came as a direct result of pressure from the Indian government to silence Sikhs about their suffering at its hands. There have been instances of Sikh diaspora accounts being censored by social media companies for violating Indian law.