Report mischievous, fake: Didn’t ask Facebook to block #ResignModi tag says Govt

New Delhi, Apr 29: The Indian government said that the Wall Street Journal report that alleged temporary blocking of the hashtag #ResignModi was misleading, mischievous and an attempt to curb public dissent.

The government in a statement said, " a story by Wall Street Journal attributing removal of a certain hashtag by Facebook to GOI's efforts to curb public dissent is misleading on facts and mischievous in intent."

The government referred to the Wall Street Journal report on March 5 report and said that it was completely fake and manufactured. "Government has not issued any direction to remove this hashtag. Facebook has also clarified that it was removed by mistake," the statement also read.

"It is pertinent to mention that on 5th March 2021 also, Wall Street Journal had published a fake news with heading- "India Threatens Jail for Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter Employees". Government had sent an official rebuttal of this completely fake and manufactured story to Wall Street Journal," the government also said.

Posts tagged #ResignModi which were critical of the handling by the government of the pandemic were blocked for several hours, before being restored.

In a statement Facebook said that it temporarily blocked this hashtag by mistake, not because the Indian government asked us to, and have since restored it.

The government said that media has an important role to play in acting as a force multiplier to the efforts of our front-line workers and medical professionals. At a sensitive time such as tis, we urge the media to partner with crores of ordinary Indians as we collectively fight the pandemic, the government also said.