Hyderabad: In a decisive action, IT giant Meta has removed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Goshamahal MLA T Raja Singh’s Facebook and Instagram accounts over allegations of hate speech.
These accounts were removed according to Meta’s “dangerous individuals and organizations” policy.
These platforms, mainly Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, recently shared details about the BJP MLA’s events in 2024 and his amplified latest hate-filled speeches, often targeted at minority communities, according to a report by India Hate Lab. The study analysed various mass gatherings, including political rallies, electoral campaign events, religious processions, protest marches, and nationalist rallies.
Facebook and YouTube were reportedly the primary platforms for his hate speech dissemination. Facebook alone accounted for 495 hate speech videos while YouTube had 211 videos.
The report also found that 266 anti-minority hate speeches by senior BJP leaders, mostly between April and June months when the 2024 Lok Sabha elections were held, were live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and X through official party accounts.
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74.5 percent of Raja Singh’s hate speech posted in Facebook
The India Hate Lab report highlights that out of Raja Singh’s 259 documented cases of hate speech, including direct calls for violence against minority communities, particularly Muslims in India, 219 speeches were initially shared or live-streamed on social media. Facebook accounted for the majority with 164 instances, an overwhelming 74.9 percent of the total speeches, followed by YouTube with 49, 22.4 percent and Instagram with six.
It further revealed that the BJP MLA made 32 hate speeches at events across India, including 22 instances where he explicitly incited violence primarily against Muslims and in some cases against the Christian community. Of these, 16 speeches were initially shared on YouTube while 13 appeared on Facebook.
Meta’s ban doesn’t stop Raja Singh’s supporters
However, despite Meta’s ban, the Goshamahal MLA and his supporters managed to share hate speeches on the two platforms. This is being done by creating proxy social media pages.
Some of the banned accounts on Facebook include ‘Raja Singh (Bhagyanagar) MLA’, ‘Raja Singh (Dhoolpet) MLA’, ‘RAJA SINGH YUVA SENA (RSYS)’ and ‘Tiger Raja Singh Official Group’.
Additionally, several other pages, groups, and accounts in Hindi collectively had over 100,000 followers, the report said.
On Instagram, Raja Singh and his supporters managed four key accounts: @rajasinghmla, @t.usharajasinghofficial, @t.rajabhaimla1, and @t.rajabhaimla3. These accounts had a combined following of nearly 198,900 users.
