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Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut’s post calling Covid a ‘small time flu’ deleted by Instagram

Ranaut says she’s ‘eagerly waiting to be banned’ by Instagram

Peony Hirwani
Monday 10 May 2021 10:35 BST
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A post by Indian actor Kangana Ranaut, who recently revealed that she had tested positive for Covid-19 and called the infection that has killed thousands of people in the country a “small time flu,” has been deleted by Instagram.

“I have quarantined myself, I had no idea this virus is having a party in my body, now that I know I will demolish it, people please don’t give anything any power over you, if you are scared it will scare you more,” she wrote.

The 34-year-old actor called the virus “a small time flu which got too much press.”

She faced immense backlash by commentators reminding her of the number of people who continue to die because of the disease.

In her story, she wrote: “Instagram has deleted my post where I threatened to demolish Covid because some were hurt.”

“It’s been two days here on Insta but don’t think will last here for a week,” she added.

In another story she mentioned that “this platform” (Instagram) never “appealed” to her and that she’s “eagerly waiting to be banned here.”

Screenshot of Kangana Ranaut’s Instagram story after the platform deleted her Covid post
Screenshot of Kangana Ranaut’s Instagram story after the platform deleted her Covid post (Kangana Ranaut/ Instagram)

India reported an all-time high of 412,262 new infections last week with 3,980 deaths, pushing total fatalities to 2,40,116 this week.

The country has 3.7 million active cases while the experts say the actual tally is still an undercount.

Last week, Twitter permanently suspended the Queen actor’s account after it said she repeatedly violated its rules on “hateful conduct” and “abusive behaviour.”

Ranaut had tweeted about claims that a political party was taking revenge on supporters of Narendra Modi’s BJP after defeating it in the state election in West Bengal.

Replying to a tweet about the “alarming situation” in West Bengal, Ranaut wrote that the national ruling party should resort to gangster tactics to “tame” West Bengal’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The actor has since said that she has “many platforms” through which to express her views, speaking again about the “disturbing news, photos and videos coming out of Bengal”.

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