‘No government role’: Centre after Samajwadi Party says Akhilesh Yadav’s Facebook account blocked

The Union government on Saturday denied any role in the brief suspension of Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s Facebook account and claimed that the action was taken by the social media platform, PTI reported.

The statement came hours after Yadav’s account was suspended on Friday evening, The Hindu reported. It was restored on Saturday morning.

The Samajwadi Party had accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of having ordered the suspension.

On Saturday, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ashwini Vaishnaw claimed that Yadav’s account had a “very abusive post” on it and Facebook suspended it as per the platform’s policy.

Later in the day, the Samajwadi Party chief told reporters that he had on Saturday “received information that there was a complaint about adult sexual exploitation and violence”.

“I got the report and learned about the post unofficially linked to the suspension – it was regarding violence against a woman in Ballia and the murder of a journalist,” he said.

He added: “Now the socialists understand that the more we work on the ground, the more battles we will win.”

On Friday, Samajwadi Party Spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chaand described the suspension of Yadav’s account as “an attack on democracy”.

“The BJP government has imposed an undeclared emergency in the country, where it wants to suppress every voice raised in Opposition,” Chaand said on social...

Read more