Facebook bans BJP politico T Raja Singh

NEW DELHI: Facebook announced on Thursday that it has banned BJP politician T. Raja Singh from the platform for violating its policies against hate speech.
The Telangana politico had been embroiled in a political storm after the Wall Street Journal reported in August that his account was not suspended despite being flagged as "dangerous" internally for allegedly spreading hate against a minority community. Facebook India top executives, including public policy head Ankhi Das, had allegedly opposed his ban, saying it would impact the company's "business interests" in India.
“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 our decision to remove his account," the company said in an email statement. Singh has been attributable as a "dangerous individual" and will not be allowed on Facebook or Instagram going forward.
According to news agency PTI, the Parliamentary Standing Committee had held a hearing on the matter of “prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms” on Wednesday and questioned Facebook India head Ajit Mohan for over two hours. On Monday, TMC politician Derek O'Brien had written a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, alleging that several pro-TMC pages had been taken down from the platform ahead of the West Bengal assembly elections.
Previously, Facebook has banned several extremist figures, including far-right American Radio host Alex Jones, political activist Laura Loomer, who worked for a Canadian far-right website and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan under this policy.