Censorship

Activist Marry Scully censored by Facebook for ‘linking Kashmiri and Palestinian struggles’

Activist Marry Scully, who is vocal about condemnation of human rights abuses in Kashmir, has been banned by Facebook for 30 days.

In a message to Journalist Satyadeep Satya, Scully wrote, “I’ve been blocked from posting on FB for 30 days because of my post yesterday asking for photos of Qaiser Amin’s funeral and saying the death of Razan al-Najjar and Qaiser Amin show how the Palestinian and Kashmiri struggles are linked.

Scully added, “The offending bit was probably mentioning that Israel trains Indian paramilitaries. FB said the post goes against their standards of hate speech.”

A long-time antiwar activist, working on Palestinian solidarity and civil rights among others, Scully has used her blog to inspire others to a lifetime of social activism to make this world suitable for human beings to live and love in.

On her website, Scully writes, “I spare no sarcasm in skewering politicians in any country who betray the cause of human freedom.”

“Above all I detest the violence of neoliberalism, the barbaric phase of capitalism, & am committed to advancing a socialist society in every way I can.”

Facebook censoring Kashmir related content and profiles is not new. Facebook had censored dozens of posts and user accounts in 2016. Academics, journalists and the pages of local newspapers are among those who have had photos, videos and entire accounts deleted by Facebook after they posted about recent events in Kashmir.

Facebook in its defence has maintained, “Our Community Standards prohibit content that praises or supports terrorists, terrorist organisations or terrorism, and we remove it as soon as we’re made aware of it. We welcome discussion on these subjects, but any terrorist content has to be clearly put in a context which condemns these organisations or their violent activities.”

The Washington Post had reported that the account of Arif Ayaz Parrey, an editor with an environmental magazine in New Delhi, was disabled for more than a day. Parray administered the Facebook account of a discussion group called the Kashmir Solidarity Network, whose page was also removed.

Professor Dibyesh Anand of London’s Westminster University said his posts about the actions of Indian armed forces, which have drawn criticism for their heavy-handed tactics, were removed more than twice.

Mary Scully was censored in 2016 too. Scully had told The Daily Mail that her posts were also removed on more than one occasion, citing community standards.

She and Anand along with others had started a petition urging Facebook to investigate.

Not only people, organisations have been censored as well. In July 2017, Kashmir Ink, which is a sister publication of the leading Kashmiri newspaper Greater Kashmir, found its Facebook page blocked when it did a cover story ‘Kashmir: A year after Burhan’s death’, on the anniversary of the killing of Kashmiri militant leader Burhan Wani.

 

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