“Stance against BJP, RSS”: Insta handles of Malayalam daily Deshabhimani, portal 'No Cap' disabled
News portal The Wire was blocked for two hours on Monday
Kochi: Meta has reportedly disabled Instagram handles of Malayalam newspaper Deshabhimani, and online news portal ‘No Cap’.
According to a report by The News Minute, the platform also had blocked national news portal The Wire was blocked in India for nearly two hours on Monday, February 9.
“The Instagram account was disabled on February 1, coinciding with the day the Union Government presented its budget. In the ten days since, the organisation has repeatedly reached out to Meta seeking restoration of the account, but has received no response or resolution,” reported TNM quoting the Coordinating Editor, Sajan Evugen for the digital edition of Deshabhimani as saying.
Sajan also shared that they posted several news card on the budget day, however later that day Meta disabled their account without any proper explanation.
“We have submitted an appeal but have not received a response, we also haven’t received any notification on community standards violation,” he added.
Meanwhile, Deshabhimani, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in a report stated that the action came in the backdrop of the newspaper’s reporting and firm stance against
“Deshabhimani regularly shared posts highlighting what it described as the Union government’s neglect of Kerala and its anti-people policies,” the newspaper said, suggesting these could be possible reasons behind the ban.
In a Facebook post, No Cap stated that action against its Instagram handle was taken without any explanation or specified reason.
Quoting Ali Hyder, Executive Editor of No Cap, the TNM reported that they initially received a notice from Meta suspending the account for an alleged violation of community standards, without specifying any particular post or content.
“We submitted an appeal explaining our position, but the response we received was a permanent suspension, citing only ‘community violence’ without any clear explanation,” Hyder stated.
According to Hyder, in the days leading up to the suspension, the account had shared news posts critical of the RSS and reports mentioning Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s name in connection with the Epstein files.
“We are not certain about the exact reason, but some of the content we posted recently was related to the Epstein files,” he said.
Deshabhimani in its report stated that the Instagram account had shared posts opposing Union government policies impacting ordinary citizens, criticising what it described as the neglect of Kerala, and condemning the BJP government’s alleged submission to the United States and propaganda against communal harmony.
“Meta’s action comes at a time when this content had reached a wide audience,” the Deshabhimani report read.
Following the ban, on Monday, February 9, Deshabhimani appealed for the account’s reinstatement, but has not received any favourable response from Meta so far. “We will continue our efforts to communicate with Meta, but for now, we have launched a new page,” Sajan said.
Alongside news portal accounts, several Instagram pages that had criticised the Union government were also disabled over the past week.
In a social media post, The Wire said it had informally learned that the ministry had requested Meta to block a 52-second satirical animation on Instagram. Although the account was later restored, the cartoon remained inaccessible.
Third largest newspaper in kerala blocked because they were critical of BJP's Union Government.
— Mini Nair (@minicnair) February 11, 2026
Mother of Democracy pic.twitter.com/b1JSsNyUAE
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Bihar: Over 150 children fall ill after consuming 'mid-day meal' in Saharsa
Saharsa (PTI): More than 150 children were taken ill after allegedly consuming food that was part of the mid-day meal in a school in Bihar’s Saharsa district, a senior official said on Thursday.
The incident occurred at a middle school in Baluaha village of the district.
The official said that 115 children were undergoing treatment at the Sadar Hospital, while around 50 students were admitted to Mahishi Public Health Centre.
“We received information that several children fell ill after consuming the mid-day meal in Baluaha. The children were initially treated at the primary health centre, but later, many were referred to the Sadar Hospital,” Saharsa District Magistrate Deepesh Kumar told reporters.
“According to doctors, the health condition of the children has improved, but they will be kept under observation for some time. There is no need to panic. Some kids are having mild fever. They are being treated accordingly,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, family members of some children claimed that a snake was found in the container in which cooked pulses was stored at the school.
Of the 545 students present in the school, 200 had already eaten their meals by the time the snake was spotted, and later complained of stomach ache and vomiting, they said.
Regarding the claims, the DM said food samples have been collected from the school.
“We will be able to comment on this only after the results of the tested samples arrive,” he said.
