Facebook bans BJP politician for hate speech

NEW DELHI: Facebook on Thursday banned an Indian politician belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party from its platform 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.

The Wall Street Journal reported the move earlier.

Earlier this month, 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.

Read more: India's Congress calls for probe into Facebook's treatment of Modi's party

Citing a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, 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”.

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.

“While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy,” it had said.