according to meta policiesIt does not allow “content that glorifies, endorses, or represents events that Meta designates as violating violent incidents,” including “hate incidents” and “hate crimes.” Meta spokesperson Erin Logan told WIRED that Meta “has strict policies against violent or graphic content on our platforms, and we enforce these rules impartially.” “Once this report is provided to us, we will review it and remove any infringing content and disable the accounts of repeat infringers.” Logan declined to answer this question. Whether META considers cow vigilantes to be part of “violent or hate groups”. Last year the company had removed the profiles related to it. Monu Manesara cow protector who was arrested And accused of inciting violence in Haryana.
Cow protection is nothing new in India, where Hinduism considers cows sacred. But the country also has a large minority population including Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs and tribal or indigenous people, for whom there are no religious restrictions on eating beef. Dalits, the lowest-ranking group in the Hindu caste system, also occasionally consume beef. Due to their marginalized status, Muslims and Dalits in particular have been marginalized remained economically dependent on the cattle industry for a long time,
Since Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014, many states have When it came to cow protection, strict laws were passedA Congressional Research Service Report The release last week said cow vigilantism was one of several forms of “religiously motivated repression and violence” used by Hindus and supported by the country's Hindu nationalist government against minority communities. according to a april report From armed conflict location and incident data, cow vigilantism was the catalyst for 22 percent of all communal violence perpetrated by Hindus targeting Muslims between 2019 and 2024.
“Vigilantes organize their targets to punish minorities through extrajudicial means,” says Angana Chatterjee, chair of the Political Conflict, Gender and Peoples' Rights Initiative at UC Berkeley. “Hindu nationalist leaders in the government have Have aligned with the militias, and their speeches often act as dog whistles to unite people, allegedly inciting them to commit these extraordinary acts including home invasions, thefts, and lynchings. “
Chatterjee says publicizing violence on a place like Instagram allows cow vigilantes to recruit new members and unite other Hindu nationalists in different parts of the country. “For Muslims and minorities and their allies, the purpose of Instagram messaging is to spread terror with impunity,” she says. “To signal, 'Stop resisting. We are going to come for you and there will be nothing to stop us, especially when law enforcement is often either absent or complicit.'”