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Canadian politicians denounce Instagram’s ban of Tamil Guardian

Canadian politicians from both the Liberal and Conservative parties called for an explanation from Instagram and Facebook, which has been rebranded to Meta, last night, after the social media platform removed the Tamil Guardian Instagram account for more than 48 hours this week.

The move, which prompted outrage from around the world, saw the account deactivated without warning.

“The removal of our Instagram page follows a campaign of censorship of our posts on Instagram and Facebook,” said a Tamil Guardian statement. “News articles covering events on the island, historical photographs documenting Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and even political artwork have all faced removal. Other Tamil nationalist content and accounts have also faced similar hurdles.”

See the full press conference with Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree, Tamil Guardian editor Thusiyan Nandakumar, PEARL's Executive Director Archana Ravichandradeva, Mayor of Brampton Patrick Brown, Conservative MPP Vijay Thanigasalam, Conservative MP Michael Chong and Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith below.

See extracts from the press conference, in order of speaker, below.

Liberal MP Gary Anandasangaree

Over the past two years I have received numerous complaints of Facebook and Instagram accounts of Tamil Canadians receiving warnings and or outright suspensions of their accounts. This also included one small business whose Instagram account was deleted. Yesterday, I received the devastating news that Tamil Guardian’s Instagram account was disabled without cause, notice or forewarning.

The Tamil Guardian is the only English language website that reports on Eelam Tamils and the Tamils within Sri Lanka. It is highly regarded as a credible source with reporters on the ground on the island. The editors are often called upon as experts by media outlets such as the BBC and Al Jazeera. Their opinions are read by policy experts from around the world and they have covered the United Nations Human Rights Council proceedings extensively over the past 12 years. I personally use Tamil Guardian as my primary source of information relating to Tamils on the island and I suspect many parliamentary colleagues in Canada as well as around the world do so as well.

Sri Lanka continues to be one of the most dangerous places to work as a journalist.

Tamil Guardian is what a traditional journalism shop ought to be. Free, fair, critical and accessible.

The stunning move by Instagram to disable the Tamil Guardian account has sent chills around the world to Tamil activists. It is a clear warning that if you critique the Sri Lankan government for violations of human rights, including war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, or if you document or offer perspectives on Tamil issues, you are under greater scrutiny. What Sri Lanka was unable to do, that is to silence the Tamil Guardian, Instagram managed to do summarily.

I call upon Facebook and Instagram to immediately review its policies relating to Tamil-run sites and accounts of Tamils, as it now appears to be targeting.

 

Tamil Guardian editor Thusiyan Nandakumar

Without any prior warning or notification, our Instagram account with over 19,000 followers was disabled.

Despite our attempts to reach out to Facebook – we have received no response or explanation. This is not only disappointing, but it is also dangerous.

This is not an accident or a mistake. We believe this is a deliberate silencing of our voice on one of the largest social media platforms in the world. And it sadly follows a disturbing pattern of censoring Tamil voices – both in Sri Lanka and online.

In Sri Lanka, our correspondents, many of whom work for us in secret, were facing increasing harassment from the security forces – part of a general trend of press suppression that has taken place since the election of Gotabaya Rajapaksa as president in 2019.

Under this regime, we’ve seen poets and journalists jailed under draconian anti-terror legislation. And we’ve seen an increased surveillance of social media. Indeed, some Tamils have been detained by the security forces over posts on Facebook.

The Sri Lankan military has also openly said that it does monitor social media. We know there is a unit focused on ‘cyber security’. And we know that Shavendra Silva, a credibly accused war criminal who is currently banned from travel to the US over his role in executing Tamils, labelled “threats” from social media as a “serious concerns for national security”.

In recent months, at the Tamil Guardian we have felt the impact of that.

While our work has never been removed off Twitter, whilst we have never been accused of breaching any laws in the United Kingdom, USA or Canada or had any concerns raised by relevant authorities, we’ve noted how Instagram and its parent company Facebook has been increasingly censoring us.

Since 2019, we’ve frequently had posts removed, for the alleged “praise, support or representation” of a “terrorist organisation”. News articles covering events on the island – such as remembrance ceremonies that have taken place legally and in some instances with police supervision - historical photographs documenting Sri Lanka’s ethnic conflict and even political artwork have all faced removal. Other Tamil nationalist content and accounts have also faced similar hurdles.

We held meetings with Facebook directly earlier this year. We have sent emails and briefs. We have sent documents for verification. We have complained to the Oversight Board.

But all our efforts have frankly been fruitless.

The timing is also not coincidental. Rajapaksa regime is economically teetering. President due to visit Glasgow where mass protests are planned to greet him. Tamil national heroes day is coming up next month, an annual commemoration and a time when Sri Lankan state repression usually ramps up. And pressure is piling for accountability for genocide.

What is shocking is Facebook’s complicity with this regime. It has effectively colluded with the Rajapaksas in suppressing free speech...  A state that is ranked 127 out of 179 by RSF. A state that has murdered more than 40 media workers since 2004 alone. A state that continues to jail poets and journalists for ‘terrorism’.

 

PEARL Executive Director Archana Ravichandradeva

Censorship of Tamil expression on social media has significantly increased over the past few years.

When Facebook disabled Tamil Guardian's Instagram account, it silenced a vital news outlet that, for many across the world, remains their main news source for events regarding their homeland in the English language. This is of immeasurable value for organizations like PEARL who rely on such Tamil Guardian in our important and time specific advocacy efforts.

We are shocked by the actions of Facebook and Instagram, which not only mirror the Sri Lankan government's decades-long censorship, but also disrupt Tamils' free expression rights on a global scale.

The Sri Lankan government shut down numerous news outlets in Sri Lanka as well as kidnapping, torturing and killing journalists for decades.

The most recent report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights shows that, even 12 years after the end of the armed conflict, journalists are still subjected to harassment, intimidation and attacks by State security forces. Censoring Tamils, as well as other critics, feeds into the Sri Lankan government's entrenched Sinhala-Buddhist ethnoreligious nationalism by targeting the civic rights, freedoms, and spaces of other groups.

In particular, Tamil memorialisation, or the commemoration of lost loved ones, has been heavily censored. Remembrance events, such as those around Mullivaikkal and Maaveerar Naal, allow the Tamil community to come together and collectively mourn, regardless of their differences.

In the virtual and Covid era, social media has played an important role in collective remembrance. Unfortunately, big tech has denied the Tamil community their right to memorialise and express their grief both in the homeland and abroad. We also have to understand the importance of social media for the diaspora, many of whom fled Sri Lanka due to the decades of violence and who now exist far away from their home, families and communities. Social media is often the thred that holds people together, and builds community and solidarity.

Over the years, harmless hashtags, art, poetry and informative videos put together by Tamils on the homeland and the diaspora have been be taken down. Facebook and Instagram even deleted and censored photos and illustrations of the Tamil national flower, the Gloriosa Lily. This censorship compounds the trauma within the Tamil community as they find themselves unable to express their emotion without fear of repercussion.

We call on Canada to urge Facebook to restore the account, make a full, public disclosure of the reasons for disabling Tamil Guardian's Instagram page, including the existence of pressure from the Sri Lankan government, and to take immediate steps to ensure such arbitrary censorship does not occur in the future.

 

Mayor of Brampton Patrick Brown

I want to thank MP Gary for taking this initiative to bring us together to speak about this egregious act of censorship.

Thank you for including me in this collection of voice who are very concerned about what has happened to the Tamil Guardian.

A country that has witnessed a Tamil genocide and now years later still avoiding reconciliation, still refusing to account for the atrocities that happened on their watch, are now engaging in silencing the media.

I believe we have a responsibility as Canadians. When we boycotted the Commonwealth [Heads of Government Meeting] in Sri Lanka, when we stood shoulder to shoulder with the Tamil diaspora about the horrors of the genocide I thought Canada’s voice was important.

I think there is an opportunity for us to say that the media should not be infringed, that the Tamil Guardian should not be censored, that democratic voices must be hard. There are important stories to be told.

On top of a physical genocide, we’re seeing a cultural genocide that continues in Sri Lanka.

I hope that we can speak loudly in international circles about this.

 

Conservative MPP Vijay Thanigasalam

As we all know the Sri Lankan government is known for its track record in suppressing freedom of the press and media, and many attacks happen on media outlets in Tamil areas, including the assassination of Tamil journalists and non-Tamil journalists on the island.

Unfortunately, we know the Sri Lankan state does not believe in these basic values of freedom. For the people who fled genocide in Sri Lanka and are now living in Ontario, in Canada and across the world in the diaspora, the media is the connecting point, connecting them back home.

Media channels like the Tamil Guardian play a key role in the lives not only of Tamil Canadians in Ontario but the diaspora across the globe. It’s affecting daily lives.

 

Conservative MP Michael Chong

Events that have been brought to our attention are concerning and at minimum it’s clear that Facebook owes the community and the Tamil Guardian an explanation as to why this happened and the reasons behind it

So we will continue to monitor the situation and keep a close eye on this because we all believe in standing up for freedom, human rights, democracy and the rule of law. It’s important that these values are held here and abroad.

 

Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith

As someone who has been vocal and critical of Facebook to address some of the harmful content on its platform, at the same time when they make these decisions its incumbent on Facebook to be transparent, provide credible explanations, especially when freedom of the press is at issue.

This is an issue that has been on Facebook’s radar. This is an issue that has been flagged for Facebook repeatedly, not only by the Tamil Guardian but by those of us in Parliament. There needs to be proper due process and a proper explanation when a decision like this is undertaken that has such great consequence.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

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