A day after it was reported that BJP MLA T Raja Singh’s account was banned from Facebook amid huge pressure on the social media giant, the MLA had claimed that he had not had a Facebook account since April 2019 and hence there was “no question of banning”.
PTI quoted Singh as saying his verified Facebook page was hacked and he had approached the Hyderabad police on October 8, 2018 over it.
Singh claimed that after that he started a new page that “was unpublished/ deleted in April 2019. So, Since April 2019, I’m not on Facebook itself, so no question of banning (me). Is Facebook working under the pressure of Congress”.
He also said that he will write to Facebook to open his official account. “I will follow all rules and regulations to use it. I should be given the right to use Facebook account and I will seek their permission,” he said.
In a separate video message, Singh also alleged that leaders like Rahul Gandhi made false statements on social media paltforms against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and demanded that after thorough research, accounts of the Congress and the AIMIM parties should be deleted from social networking sites.
A WSJ report on Thursday quoted Facebook as saying in a statement that Singh’s account had been banned.
Earlier, another WSJ report had alleged that Facebook’s top policy executive in India, Ankhi Das, told employees that punishing hate speech by BJP leaders in India would damage the company’s “business prospects” in India. The leaders with hate speech posts mentioned in the report include Telangana MLA T. Raja Singh and MP and former Union minister Anantkumar Hegde.
Meanwhile, when his name came up in the revelations of Facebook top executives like Ankhi Das openly supporting the BJP and not taking down hate speeches made by them, Singh said he stood by his comments.
He had made remarks against Rohingya Muslims in India and had said they should be sent away from the country.
(With inputs from PTI)