Hyderabad: Faceboook removed 687 pages of individuals who are linked to the IT Cell of the Congress over their “behaviour”. The timing of the action created a stir as Facebook claims that it cannot allow inauthentic behaviour or spam.
Mr Srinivas Kodali, an expert in cyber security explained, “The timing could be because Facebook did not want to have a scene after the elections as was noted during the time of the United States elections. They have been allowing this for quite some time and decided to take action now before it is too late.”
Facebook concedes that these accounts and pages are fake and have been posting a particular content repeatedly. This is the reason action has been taken against them. The details of all 687 pages have not been given by FB and only four samples have been posted by them on their blog.
Activists ask how can so many profiles be fake. When they were created, did not the systems in the company identify them as fake? Why the action now?
Inji Pennu, a top Facebook activist in the USA explained, “Facebook, a US corporate, is clearly meddling in Indian democracy and its general elections. Hindutva people here are threatening to murder Minorities on Facebook Live — I myself have submitted enough evidence on this! Stop aiding and promoting fascism on India Facebook! It is worth millions of hours of work for each and every one of us activists who have been trying to stop the RSS right wing hate in India. Why do you guys come in and meddle in Indian elections like this?”
The reason for the action in various IT social media wing is being attributed to the upper hand that the Congress is gaining in containing hatred and in also correcting fake news. These counter retaliations by the IT cell is now making people think and is leading to uneasiness in the ruling political party.
Facebook contends that people whose pages and accounts have been deleted have concealed their identities and this is not accepted by the company. Mr Sandeep Malireddy, cyber expert said, “The continuous posting of highly-suspicious content leads to the removal of pages. Authentic pages can be recovered after submission of sufficient proof. The contention of FB is that the person who is posting must have an identity as they have clearly said that the removal is not because of the content.”
Mr Rajeev Sharma, a cyber expert asks, “Will FB, when provided with legitimate documents, re-start the account? What about the loss of face on social media for a ‘genuine account holder’? Would s/he then want to use the platform? If it is not about content, what is FB trying to tell people?”
