More than three weeks after Facebook was accused of not acting against provocative posts by Telangana BJP MLA T. Raja Singh, the social media platform has banned his account.
Raja Singh was among rightwing leaders named in an article in The Wall Street Journal on August 14. The article claimed Facebook had not acted against allegedly provocative posts by Raja Singh and the other BJP and Hindutva figures.
The ban on Raja Singh's account was reported by The Wall Street Journal. Newley Purnell, a journalist with The Wall Street Journal, tweeted about the ban on Raja Singh on Thursday. Purnell tweeted, "Facebook has banned a politician from India’s ruling party for violating hate speech rules, amid growing political storm over extremist content. Removal of BJP's T. Raja Singh is about-face for the company and one that will be politically tricky.
Purnell tweeted, "Now, at least five Facebook profiles dedicated to him, which once had more than 300,000 followers, are gone. So is his Instagram."
Purnell quoted a Facebook spokesperson as saying, "We have banned Raja Singh from Facebook for violating our policy prohibiting those that promote or engage in violence and hate from having a presence on our platform... The process for evaluating potential violators is extensive and it is what led us to this decision.”
In its August report, The Wall Street Journal had reported, that in Facebook posts, "T. Raja Singh has said Rohingya Muslim immigrants should be shot, called Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques.” “By March of this year, they [Facebook] concluded Mr. Singh not only had violated the company’s hate-speech rules but qualified as dangerous, a designation that takes into account a person’s off-platform activities, according to current and former Facebook employees," the publication added. However, the social media platform did not act.
T. Raja Singh, who is considered one of the most outspoken leaders of the BJP in Telangana, is the party's floor leader in the state Assembly. Raja Singh has a history of provocative utterances.
In September last year, Raja Singh declared an "army of youths" is being set up to deal with traitors inside the country and to ensure that the youngsters come forward for the nation's security. He said that in the times to come, traitors will be taken out from hiding in India and sent outside the country or "to hell directly. This is our resolve".
