Facebook unblocks Modi critic YouTuber, Dhruv Rathee, hours after the ban

Hours after Facebook banned the account of political analyst and a fact-checker, Dhruv Rathee, for 30 days, access to his account was restored on March 18 at noon.

Rathee published the screenshot of the apology by Facebook.

Rathee is known for producing videos that fact-checked claims of the BJP government. His YouTube channel has over 1.7 million followers whereas his Facebook page is followed by over 504,000 people and Twitter handle by 220,000 people.

However, within six hours of filing a complaint with Facebook, the social media platform restored his account admitting that they “made a mistake and removed something you (Rathee) posted on Facebook that didn’t go against our Community Standards.”

Rathee thanked supporters who posted about the ban on him, sharing a screenshot of the note from the Facebook.

Previously, Rathee had tweeted, “What a coincidence that elections are 30 days away also and what a coincidence that my engagement rates are one of the biggest in India, competing with BJP’s top propaganda pages, including Modi’s official page.”

In a follow-up tweet, Rathee claimed Facebook had banned him for uploading sections of a biography on Adolf Hitler from Encyclopaedia Britannica on March 15. Countering the Facebook charge the post went “against community standards”, Rathee tweeted it did not contain one “abusive” or “disrespectful word”.

Rathee also asked “Is educating people about Hitler through Encyclopaedia Britannica against FB’s standards?”

Congress IT cell chief Divya Spandana had retweeted Rathee’s post, indicating that the Facebook ban might have been linked to the coming Lok Sabha polls.