Facebook unpublishes Kisan Ekta Morcha's page during Yogendra Yadav's live, restores later

The farmers protesting against the Centre's agriculture reforms on Sunday said that their Facebook page was taken down by the social media giant for several hours and was restored later after an outrage. According to media reports, along with the Facebook page, Kisan Ekta Morcha's Instagram page too was taken down following a live broadcast, the protestors alleged. Farmers connected with the protests have been posting updates about their agitation under the banner of Kisan Ekta Morcha.

'When they can't beat us ideologically....'

"This is what they can do when people raise their voices....... " Kisan Ekta Morcha tweeted with a screenshot of its Facebook page which was unpublished. In the screenshot, a Facebook warning can be seen saying that the page had gone against its community standards on spam.

"In midst of a Facebook Live I was doing from Kisan Ekta Morcha's page, we get a notification that the FB page has been unpublished," Swaraj India leader Yogendra Yadav said in a tweet. He added, "There must be something about farmers that this govt is particularly scared of & something about this govt that Facebook is particularly scared of." Netizens have also started trending #ShameOnFacebook on Twitter. 

Govt writes to farmer unions 

Meanwhile, the Government on Sunday asked protesting Farmer Unions to specify their concerns over its earlier proposal of amendments in the new agri laws and choose a convenient date for the next round of talks so that the ongoing agitation could end at the earliest.

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In a letter to 40 Union Leaders, Union Agriculture Ministry Joint Secretary Vivek Aggarwal said the Centre is making all efforts with "an open heart" to find an appropriate solution to resolve all the concerns raised by farmers. Previous five rounds of talks between the Government and the Unions have failed to break the deadlock with the farmers insisting on the repeal of the three laws and camping at various border points of Delhi for over three weeks now. Earlier in the day, Home Minister Amit Shah said it is likely that Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar will in a day or two meet the union leaders. 

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Thousands of farmers from Punjab, Haryana, UP and some other states are protesting against the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, Farmers Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act.

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Enacted in September, the three farm laws have been projected by the Central 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.

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(With PTI inputs)