Hours after news of Facebook banning Bharatiya Janata Party MLA T Raja Singh over hate content, the Telangana BJP MLA claimed that he had no account with the networking site for over a year and wondered if the social media giant was working under Congress “pressure”, reported PTI

Singh claimed that he did not have a Facebook account since April 2019 and that the pages the social networking site banned by Facebook might have been created by his followers.

Facebook on Thursday said it has banned Raja Singh from its platform and Instagram for violating its policy on content promoting violence and hate.

Read|’We are non-partisan, will continue to combat hate speech’: Facebook to Congress

Singh said he wanted to know whether Facebook was working under the Congress party’s pressure.

“On October 8, 2018, I wrote a letter to Hyderabad Police Cyber Crime department stating that my Facebook verified page was hacked,” said the MLA.

He again started a new page which “was unpublished/ deleted in April 2019.”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

In a separate video message, the legislator said leaders like Rahul Gandhi made ‘false’ statements against the BJP and Modi, using social media platforms and demanded that after thorough research, accounts of Congress and AIMIM parties should be deleted from social networking sites.

Read| Parliamentary panel ‘discussion’ with Facebook head to continue: Shashi Tharoor

Singh said he will write to Facebook to open an account for him, adding that all rules and regulations will be adhered to.

“I will write to Facebook to open my official account. I will follow all rules and regulations to use it. I should be given the right to use Facebook account and I will seek their permission,” he said.

Stating that Facebook is a neutral platform, Singh said linking it with BJP is not fair.

Facebook, which counts India among its largest markets with over 300 million users, has been in the eye of a storm after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report alleged that its content policies favoured the ruling BJP.

Congress had also written to Facebook, complaining of ‘bias’ towards the BJP.