BJP MLA Raja Singh says he has no Facebook account after being banned

Naveen S Garewal
Tribune News Service
Hyderabad, September 3 

After Facebook and Instagram barred Telangana’s BJP MLA T Raja Singh from their portals, Singh who represents Goshamahal Assembly segment in Hyderabad said he does not subscribe to social media.

“I just got to know that all accounts operating on my name have been taken down. I’m very happy about this as they don’t belong to me and may have been opened by some supporters.” 

But he later said he would ask Facebook to allow him to start a Facebook page as this was a “neutral platform” and he would promise to adhere to all rules of the online portal. 

It was earlier reported that Facebook had taken down the account for promoting hate against Muslims.

Both Facebook and Instagram are owned by Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook has been under attack for showing a bias towards the BJP by relaxing its rules pertaining to hate speech. 

Raja Singh told the media in Hyderabad that he had not used Facebook for the past two years and that “his official account was taken down in 2018 itself and I haven’t had an account since then”.

He said there were several accounts being run under his name and he had brought this to the knowledge of Facebook several times. 

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), an American business newspaper, had on August 15 published a story that said one particular post by Raja Singh had been classified as “dangerous hate speech” by employees of Facebook.

This post pertained to Rohingya Muslim, about whom it was said “these immigrants must be shot”, calling them “traitors”.  

Raja Singh accused former Congress president Rahul Gandhi of making false statements against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP using social media platforms, even as he wanted to exercise his right to be on Facebook.  

In another video message, Singh asked if Facebook and Instagram were working under the Congress party’s pressure. He said he had written a letter to Hyderabad Police Cyber Crime department on October 8, 2018 that his official Facebook verified page was hacked.

He again started a new page which “was unpublished/ deleted in April 2019”.  

In a statement, he reiterated, “So, since April 2019, I’m not on Facebook itself, so no question of banning (me). Is Facebook working under the pressure of Congress,” Singh said in a brief statement.

He demanded that accounts of Congress and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) should be deleted from social networking sites.  

But he later said that he will write to Facebook to let him open a Facebook account by promising to adhere to all rules and regulations. Stating that Facebook was a neutral platform, linking it with BJP was not fair.