Arvind Kejriwal claims his Instagram account restricted, asks Meta not to bow down to PM

Arvind Kejriwal claimed his Instagram account had been restricted in India without explanation and accused Meta of 'bowing down' to PM Modi.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday claimed that his Instagram account had been restricted in India. The former Delhi Chief Minister questioned Meta over the move and alleged that the company had failed to provide any explanation despite repeated attempts to seek clarification.

In a post on X, Kejriwal questioned the Mark Zuckerberg-led company over the restriction on his account and took a swipe, asking it not to “bow down” to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, suggesting that the move may have been taken at the Centre’s behest.

However, his Instagram and Facebook accounts remained accessible to users in India at the time of publishing this report. A screenshot of his account details shared by Kejriwal showed that it was marked as "unavailable in some locations".

“Why have you restricted my account? Verbal enquiries at your India office revealed that my account has been restricted in India and is unavailable in India. Why?” Kejriwal said in the post.

The AAP supremo claimed that no one at Meta's India office had provided a reason for the alleged restriction or explained how it could be removed. He further said that emails sent to the company had received only routine acknowledgements and no substantive response, calling it "pretty bad service".

Targeting Prime Minister Modi, he then asked Meta, "Don’t bow down to our Prime Minister so much. Else he will allow you to run only his own account in India".

Meta has not yet publicly responded to Kejriwal's allegations.

Kejriwal's claim came a day after Meta apologised for briefly restricting a Facebook video posted by PM Modi, with the company's Chief Global Affairs Officer, Joel Kaplan, attributing the action to an error.

“I apologised to the minister on behalf of Meta for the error restricting PM Modi's post,” Kaplan said on Wednesday.

The apology followed a demand by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology on Wednesday for Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to apologise over the removal of the PM's speech.

The development also comes against the backdrop of a Bombay High Court order directing Meta, X and Google to immediately remove social media posts deemed "vile, abusive, obscene and defamatory" against Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who is facing heat over the E20 petrol rollout. While Kejriwal's posts do not fall under the category of content flagged by the court, the AAP chief has been a vocal critic of the E20 petrol policy and has repeatedly targeted the Centre over the issue on social media.

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