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'This is completely unacceptable!' - UK and Canadian parliamentarians speak out against Facebook's censorship of Tamil Guardian

UK and Canadian parliamentarians called on Instagram to reinstate Tamil Guardian's page after it was disabled yesterday without prior warning.  

Elliot Colburn, MP for Carshalton and Wallington and Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Tamils (APPGT) called the ban "completely unacceptable" and that the APPGT will be making representations to the social media platform. 

Sam Tarry MP for Ilford South also expressed concern over the "extremely worrying act of online censorship" and highlighted Tamil Guardian's role in "exposing the injustice inflicted on the Tamil people." 

Gareth Thomas MP for Harrow West called on Instagram and Facebook to "urgently" inform Tamil Guardian as to why the page has been disabled. 

Wes Streeting MP for Ilford North called the ban "unacceptable". 

Canadian politicians also expressed their full support to the Tamil Guardian. Gary Anandasangaree, MP for Scarborough Rouge-Park, condemned the ban as a "reprehensible move" that silences "peaceful and democratic voices of the Tamil nation." 

Mayor of Brampton, Patrick Brown, expressed his solidarity and stressed that the act of censorship was an "outrageous" move and called on Instagram to "immediately reinstate" the account. 

The removal of our Instagram page follows a campaign of censorship of our posts on Instagram and Facebook. In recent years, content on our social media platforms has been removed for supposedly violating Facebook’s community guidelines

Tamil Guardian's Instagram page was disabled despite efforts to reach our to Facebook and Instagram. The disabling of our page silences our work on a major platform with an audience of over 19,000 followers. 

Read our full statement here

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