Instagram In Hot Waters After FIR Filed Over Objectionable GIF On Lord Shiva

Manish Singh, the complainant said the sticker was not provided by a user but by the social media platform.

New Delhi: Instagram landed itself in yet another controversy, this time over a GIF/Sticker. The GIF was of Hindu deity Lord Shiva holding a glass of wine & a mobile phone in his hands whilst winking was available in the Stories. 

A complaint was lodged against Instagram for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments. 

Delhi resident Manish Singh registered the complaint. Singh said that he found the sticker he was uploading an Instagram Story he searched for the keyword 'Shiv' which is when he saw the objectionable sticker. He further said the sticker was not provided by a user but by the social media platform. He said that the purpose of making this sticker was to hurt the feelings of Hindus. A case should be filed against the CEO and other officials of Instagram for this act. There have been complaints about several objectionable stickers on Instagram before.

The Union government had on February 25 issued a new guideline for social media. They say that the social media platform will be responsible for whatever content users post on the platform. If a post or tweet is made against India's security, integrity, the social media platform will have to disclose it to its originator, the person who posted it for the first time.

Recently, Amazon came under fire after users claimed that a bikini having colours of the state flag and emblem was available for sale on the e-commerce giant’s Canada site. Karnataka Kannada and Culture Minister Aravind Limbavali called it a matter of Kannadigas’ self-pride and demanded an apology from Amazon Canada. Amazon, following uproar, removed the bikini, which had the colours of unofficial state's flag, in hues of yellow and red, and has the state's emblem 'Gandaberunda', a two-headed mythological bird, from its Canada site.