Two leading political cartoonists, Satish Acharya and Manjul, have faced restrictions by Meta on their works mocking the Election Commission of India. Their colleagues have responded with satirical cartoons questioning the freedom of expression, democracy, and the government's response to satire.
Meta has restricted the work of political cartoonists Satish Acharya and Manjul due to legal requests from the Indian government on their Instagram accounts. Rachita Taneja, Sandeep Adhwaryu, Sajith Kumar, and Illustrator Ashish Bagchi are among those who have shown support for Acharya and Manjul through their own satirical cartoons.
Acharya’s Instagram account was restricted in India after Meta received a legal request from the government. One of Manjul's works about the Election Commission was restricted to users in India ‘pursuant to a notice from the Government of India/Law Enforcement’.
Acharya told Scroll that he had not received any communication from Meta before some of his posts were taken down and later his profile became unavailable in India. He has been unable to contact Instagram's help center, and claims that everything is AI-controlled.
Both Acharya and Manjul have responded with their own cartoons expressing concern about the restrictions.
Source:
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