Misleading, mischievous: No direction to Facebook to remove #ResignModi hashtag, says Centre

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Thursday strongly opposed the attribution of Facebook's blocking of a campaign asking Modi to resign, to the government and urged the media to partner with citizens to fight the pandemic "at a sensitive time like this".

The Ministry also strongly opposed The Wall Street Journal's earlier article that claimed that the government threatened jail for employees of big tech companies such as Facebook and Twitter over not taking down posts related to the farmers' protest.

Facebook on Thursday said it had temporarily blocked a hashtag calling for the Prime Minister's resignation (#ResignModi) "by mistake" and that it wasn't done on government orders.

Read | By mistake: FB after blocking #ResignModi campaign

The development comes amid reports that social media companies are being asked to remove posts that are critical of the government.

Earlier this week, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram removed about 100 posts upon government orders to take down content that was reportedly spreading fake news and misleading the public on the pandemic. Critics of the BJP have said that the move was aimed at silencing any criticism of Modi government's handling of the coronavirus crisis.