Sikh orgs begin dialogue on Sikh censorship with Facebook & Instagram

Several Sikh organisations were recently invited as “community stakeholders” to discuss the blocking of searches of the hashtag #Sikh on Instagram (IG) and Facebook (FB).

Khalsa Aid (USA & Canada), World Sikh Organisation, Jakara Movement, SALDEF, National Sikh Campaign, Sikh Coalition and The Sikh Press Association took part in the online meeting which saw Facebook and Instagram officials explain what occurred when #Sikh was blocked, as well as laying groundwork for future meetings to deal with other examples of censorship of Sikh activism.

During the meeting, the organising of which Sikh PA were not involved in, the Facebook and Instagram officials explained that the blocking of #Sikh 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. In summary, the FB and IG explanation stated:

• A series of pornographic posts were uploaded from Turkey using the hashtag #Sikh on March 7th on IG
• Reports against these posts were picked up in Germany leading to the block which was done on FB as well as IG
• A downturn in operations and operating staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic, along with what must have been a skewed sample of the ratio pornographic vs normal posts under #Sikh, along with a lack of understanding of the word Sikh from within their teams led to the “perfect storm” which caused the block to occur and go unnoticed until June
  

Importantly, these posts under #Sikh were viewed as a “malicious” attempt to have the hashtag blocked. It was also noted that #Sikh being partially blocked again only a week after the issue first became apparent happened due to the same reason; posts purposely made with #Sikh to breach IG guidelines and create a series of reports which leads to the block.

Since the meeting, the Sikh community representatives were asked to refer to a recent post by Adam Mosseri, head of IG, which spoke of the social media giant platform’s steps being taken to address censorship of minority communities, and specifically the black community in the face of the ongoing #BlackLivesMatter movement taking place globally.

1/ We stand in solidarity with the Black community. But that’s not enough. Words are not enough. That’s why we’re committed to looking at the ways our policies, tools, and processes impact Black people and other underrepresented groups on Instagram.https://t.co/rVM3E0rFHA

— Adam Mosseri ???? (@mosseri) June 15, 2020

In the post, which is available to read here, IG noted there was “concern about…whether our products and policies treat everyone equally”, adding “people around the world are rightfully demanding actions over words, and we owe the same to our community…It starts with accounting for the experiences and challenges that underrepresented groups, such as our Black community.”

IG highlighted four areas to work on, which are

1. Harassment: stating “we need to address potential gaps in how our products and policies protect people” from issues of inequality.
2. Account verification: “We’re looking into our current verification criteria and will make changes to ensure it’s as inclusive as possible.”
3. Shadow banning (known as stealth blocking/censoring): stating “we’ll be releasing more information about the types of content we avoid recommending on Explore and other places.”
4. Algorithmic bias: “we need to take a harder look at…and where we need to do more to keep bias out of these decisions.”

All of these areas are of concern to the Sikh community too. Sikh PA have been presented with evidence and examples of targeted harassment of Sikh posts, accounts with over 100k followers from world renowned artists that remain unverified due to what is believed to be their Sikh activist (pro-Khalistan and Shaheedi {Sikh martyr} reverence), pages whose traffic points at shadow banning and issues of algorithm bias which impacts Sikhs.

At the meeting, Sikh representatives from USA, Canada and the UK were all in agreement about a pattern of censorship which relate to what a Sikh PA statement said “mainly focuses on but is not limited to posts on the 1984 #Indian state perpetrated #SikhGenocide, the #Khalistan movement, Sikh political prisoners, #Shaheedi (Sikh martyr) remembrance and reverence of #Shastar (weapons – which is part of the Sikh faith).”

Hashtag #Sikh banned on FB & Instagram, @sikhsiyasat English website blocked. Several Sikh oriented pages also blocked on YouTube

Much of mainstream media blindly adopted state narrative on 1984. That's why such Sikh oriented platforms are importanthttps://t.co/2yEDf7lztf

— Aditya Menon (@AdityaMenon22) June 12, 2020

A follow-up  meeting on this topic, with the aim of creating an avenue for Sikh orgs to address this censorship in a more timely and direct fashion, is in the works, as is discussion on community standards of FB and IG. Clarification on the issue of censorship of Sikh pages in India, where the laws are different and government limits freedom of speech, remains to be given. One thing noted during the first meeting was the absence of involvement of those pages that most suffer from censorship, something which will hopefully be addressed in the next series of discussions.

On the meeting, Sikh PA Senior Press Officer Jasveer Singh said “It was really pleasing to have FB and IG open up dialogue on this issue and even more pleasing to see Sikhs from across the world agree there is a clear pattern of censorship which circles around criticism of the Indian state.

“These social media giants can no longer so they are unaware of this issue. There seemed to be a genuine willingness to have it addressed though, which is vital as these social media outlets continue to be vital platforms for political dialogue and activism. Nevertheless, there remain a lot of unanswered questions about the malicious targeting of the hashtag #Sikh and the pattern of censorship.

“It is within Sikh PA’s remit to take on issues of Sikh social media censorship. As such, this is a priority to us and we will take this opportunity to ensure we do everything we can to help IG and FB become a fairer and freer platform for Sikhs.”

The Sikh Press Association is also chasing up issues of censorship and targeted anti-Sikh content with Twitter, who have yet to respond.