Farmers protest against the new farm laws, at Kundli border in Sonipat.
Farmers protest at Delhi border points have alleged that the Facebook page of the Kisan Ekta Morcha was blocked by the social media giant. According to Baljeet Singh, who termed himself the head of IT wing of the agitation, the page was blocked after a video countering the government's claim on farm laws was shared.
Baljeet Singh said that the Facebook page was blocked at the Centre's behest on Sunday. It was, however, restored after three hours.
"The government is afraid of the farmers," Baljeet Singh said.
Meanwhile, farmer have announced to observe a relay hunger strike at all the protest sites to press for their demand to repeal the three farm laws. Farmers said that they will also halt toll collection on highways in Haryana from December 25 to 27. They have also given a call to boycott the NDA constituents who are not supporting their demand. Farmers, mostly from Punjab and Haryana, are demanding a complete repeal the three farm laws that were enacted by the Modi government in September earlier this year.
READ MORE: 'With folded hands...' PM Modi makes fervent appeal to farmers over farm laws; blasts opposition
"Everyday 11 farmers will sit on hunger strike for 24 hours," says Balwant Singh, Secretary, Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) Punjab, told news agency ANI. He said that farmers will also boycott Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Mann Ki Baat’ address on Sunday.
“We want to appeal to all of you to bang utensils till the time the PM is speaking," he said.
Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab and Haryana, are protesting against the laws for the last over four weeks at various border points of Delhi. While the three farm laws have been projected by the Modi government as major reforms in the agriculture sector that will remove the middlemen and allow farmers to sell anywhere in the country. However, the protesting farmers have expressed apprehension that the new laws would pave the way for eliminating the safety cushion of Minimum Support Price and do away with the mandi system, leaving them at the mercy of big corporates.
READ MORE: Govt reaches out to protesting farmers again, asks them to choose date for next talks
Facebook issues statement
Meanwhile, a Facebook spokesperson said that the page of the 'Kisan Ekta Morcha' was flagged as spam by its automated systems after a sudden increase in activity.
As per our review, our automated systems found an increased activity on Facebook page 'Kisan Ekta Morcha' and flagged it as spam, which violates our Community Standards. We restored the page in less than 3 hours when we became aware of the context. The vast majority of our work fighting spam is done automatically using recognizable patterns of problematic behaviour. For example, if an account is posting over & over in quick succession that’s a strong sign something is wrong
