Facebook bans BJP MLA Raja Singh for hate speech violation amid bias claim from both sides

Facebook on Thursday has banned BJP MLA T Raja Singh from its platform and Instagram for violating its policy on content promoting violence and hate. Facebook's action against BJP leader from Telangana comes as it continues to face growing political pressure in India over its handling of hate speech content.

"We have banned Raja Singh from Facebook for violating our policy prohibiting those that promote or eng in violence and hate from having a presence on our platform, a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

 statement furr added that process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to Facebook's decision to remove his account.

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Facebook faces heat from political parties

Facebook has been facing flak from political parties after a report on Wall Street Journal (WSJ) alleged that Facebook's content policies favoured ruling government in India. report had claimed that Facebook had igred posts containing hate speech by BJP MLA Raja Singh. Since n, ruling BJP and Congress have been lambasting social media giant over alleged bias.

Following WSJ report, a Parliamentary panel had summoned Facebook representatives to discuss issue of alleged misuse of social media platform on Wednesday. According to media reports, decision to remove Singh from platform was taken after an extensive process that company follows in determining which individuals meet criteria for policy violation. Facebook had been working for some time to review Singh's actions, it said.

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Singh placed under FB's dangerous individuals' & organisations policy

Facebook had previously removed content Singh had posted that violated its policies which included in its hate speech policies, however decision to ban Singh from platform has been taken w. Singh is w designated under Facebook's dangerous individuals' and organisations policy, and he will t be allowed to maintain a presence on platform going forward. As part of ban, he will also t be allowed on Facebook or its photo and video-sharing platform Instagram. Facebook will remove Ps, Groups and accounts set up to represent him.

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Ravi Shankar Prasad writes to FB CEO

Furrmore, on Tuesday, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had also written to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg. He accused  social media platform's employees of supporting people from a political predisposition that lost successive elections, and are abusing Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers.

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(With PTI Inputs)