Meta Restores Kerala Chief Minister Office's Facebook Posts After Outrage

Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan's Facebook page saw posts removed, leading to a formal complaint from his office. The deleted content included an announcement about Onam festival benefits for Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) and greetings on Nabi Dina (Milad-un-Nabi), commemorating the birth of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad.

The Chief Minister's Secretary Rathan U. Kelkar sent a letter to Meta and the Union Ministry of Electronics and IT, requesting the reinstatement of the posts and an explanation for their removal. The letter also urged the IT Ministry to step in and prevent similar arbitrary actions by Meta in the future. Last month, Meta had removed/restricted news posts and content critical of Satheesan and the United Democratic Front (UDF) government, such as a piece by opposition leader Pinarayi Vijayan on the arrest of Youth Congress leaders for involvement in synthetic drug trafficking.

Opposition parties alleged the government had created a "social media emergency," while the Kerala Union of Working Journalists denounced the actions as a threat to press freedom. Satheesan and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala denied requesting Meta to take down content, but the Chief Minister stated he had no control over Meta and his previous request to restore his Instagram account had been ignored for two months.