No official page has been taken down: Congress tweets after Facebook removes 687 pages linked to the party

" This is to clarify no official pages run by INC have been taken down. Additionally, all pages run by our verified volunteers are also unaffected. In the mean time, we are awaiting a response from Facebook to provide us a list of all pages/accounts that they have taken down," the party tweeted.

As the country is gearing up for the first phase of voting which will be held on Apr 11, Facebook on Monday said it has removed 687 pages and accounts linked to the Congress party due to "coordinated inauthentic behaviour or spam" on the social media platform.

"We have removed Pages, Groups and accounts for violating Facebook’s policies on coordinated inauthentic behavior or spam," Nathaniel Gleicher, Head of Cybersecurity Policy at Facebook, said in a statement.

This is a major action taken by the social media giant against the oldest party in India.

In a statement, Gleicher said: "We removed 687 Facebook Pages and accounts for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior in India."

"The individuals behind this activity used fake accounts, the majority of which had already been detected and suspended by our automated systems, and joined various Groups to disseminate their content and increase engagement on their own Pages," it he said.

Gleicher said: "The Page admins and account owners typically posted about local news and political issues, including topics like the upcoming elections, candidate views, the INC and criticism of political opponents including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)."

"While the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was connected to individuals associated with an INC IT Cell," he said.

India's seven-phased Lok Sabha polls will start from Apr 11 and end on May 19.

Counting of votes will take place on May 23.