New Delhi, October 11: The Samajwadi Party National President Akhilesh Yadav’s Facebook account was blocked for 12 hours. The Samajwadi Party termed this action as an attack on democracy. Responding to these allegations, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ashwini Vaishnav denied any government role.
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Vaishnav said that the government had no role in this action. Akhilesh Yadav’s page was removed due to violations of Facebook policies, specifically abusive language. Vaishnav stated that the government had no involvement in this action.
It is noteworthy that Akhilesh Yadav’s Facebook account was blocked on Friday night. He has eight million Facebook followers. The Samajwadi Party’s IT team informed META about this and it was restored on Saturday afternoon. META took this action due to “violent and obscene posts” on his Facebook page. SP leaders blamed the government for Meta’s action.
SP spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chand alleged that the central BJP government had attempted to suppress dissenting voices in the page suspension. Akhilesh’s verified account could not have been suspended without government pressure.