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Published 03 Sep, 2020 10:28pm

Facebook bans Indian politician for spreading hate speech about Muslims

Facebook has banned an outspoken right-wing Indian politician T. Raja Singh for spreading hate speech about Muslims.

A Facebook spokesman said, a regional lawmaker for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party, T. Raja Singh, was blocked "for violating our policy prohibiting those that promote or engage in violence and hate from having a presence on our platform.

The company said on Thursday it had banned politician Raja Singh from Facebook and Instagram under its "dangerous individuals and organizations" policy.

The world's largest social media company is under fire after The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that its India policy chief Ankhi Das refused to apply the company's hate speech policies to politicians from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and other "Hindu nationalist individuals and groups".

Facebook ignored its hate speech policy and allowed anti-Muslim posts on its platform to avoid ruining the company's relationship with India's governing party, said the report by The Wall Street Journal.

Raja, who made headlines for reportedly saying that Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar should be shot, will now be put on a Facebook list of "dangerous individuals".

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