Facebook bans BJP leader for 'promoting hate and violence'

Telangana BJP's T Raja Singh was at the centre of the allegations that Facebook didn't apply its hate speech rules on the leaders of the ruling party.

"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," a Facebook spokesperson said as quoted by NDTV.

The row had erupted after US publication Wall Street Journal had reported that Facebook had ignored the hate-speech posts, favouring the BJP.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook's senior executive Ankhi Das took the call of "deliberately ignoring" hate speech by BJP leaders.

While India's opposition parties had launched an unsparing attack on the BJP, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology and Communications, Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a letter to the social media giant's founder Mark Zuckerberg alleged that employees of Facebook "are on record abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior cabinet ministers" while still working in India and managing important positions.

There have been "multiple instances recently where Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, recruit people and assemble them for violence. However, we are yet to see any meaningful action against such elements," Prasad had said.