Exclusive! Sonakshi Sinha's student protest post flagged as sensitive by Instagram

Sonakshi Sinha. Pics/Instagram, PTI, Yogen Shah

A day after Sonakshi Sinha shared a series of visuals from the July 20 protest in New Delhi and criticised the violence meted out to the youth, Instagram appeared to have limited the post's visibility. On Wednesday, the actor's post had a ‘sensitive content' warning over it. Users attempting to view it were met with a message that read, ‘This video contains content that some people may find upsetting', along with a prompt to ‘See why' before the content could be viewed.

The shadowban comes amid broader complaints from actors and public figures who have alleged that politically sensitive posts on Instagram face reduced visibility or content warnings.

Shabana Azmi, Prakash Raj, and Revathy

Sinha was among the many Bollywood artistes who voiced their support for students amid the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led protests in New Delhi, demanding education reforms and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Her post in question had a series of pictures from the July 20 protest, where the demonstrators were subjected to tear gas and lathi charge by the police. Alongside, she wrote, "20th July. Bohot logon ki haddiyan tooti, aur poore desh ka dil toota."

An actor, who wanted to reshare the post, said on condition of anonymity, "I couldn't reshare Sonakshi's post initially. I thought it's an error, but it turns out she had been shadowbanned. The post has no video content."

Another source told mid-day that Shabana Azmi, Prakash Raj, Seema Pahwa, Revathy, and Anurag Kashyap's posts on the ongoing protests were also blocked temporarily on July 21. "They disappeared temporarily or became inaccessible for a while before being restored. These incidents have prompted accusations of content suppression on Instagram."

mid-day reached out to Meta India, which didn't respond till press time.

Imran Khan

More celebrities have condemned the police's actions of July 20, and supported the students' protest. With an excerpt of his post reading "bootlickers, one and all," Imran Khan criticised the lathi charge against the protesters, while Naseeruddin Shah compared the act to that of America's ICE agents