Facebook bans BJP’s Raja Singh for violating violence, hate

Facebook banned an Indian leader belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday for violating its policies covering violence and hate.

The company said it had banned politician Raja Singh from Facebook and Instagram under its ‘dangerous individuals and organizations’ policy.

Earlier, India’s main opposition Congress party had sought for an investigation by the parliamentary panel on Sunday, claiming favourable treatment by Facebook’s India team towards the country’s ruling party.

According to a report, the party had said employees of Facebook and WhatsApp overseeing Indian content had refused to bar a lawmaker from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party who had posted incendiary comments, to protect the company’s commercial interests.

However, it deleted the comments instead, the Congress party had said.

Facebook had said it prohibited hate speech and content that incited violence and enforced these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation.