Two Facebook pages bearing the name of BJP leader Subramanian Swamy- one a parody run by an anonymous operator and another said to be a fan page run by ShankhNaad website- were taken down this month by the social networking giant.
While the parody account was called “Unofficial: Subramaniam Swamy”, the other one was named “Unofficial: Dr. Subramanian Swamy”.
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After Facebook deleted the parody page on Wednesday, an online petition seeking that the page be restored has been launched on Change.org.
"This page revealed a lot of truth about the current politics in India. This was one of the rare occasions when a parody account made more sense than the actual person, and we just hope that sanity will prevail at Facebook headquarters and they'll undelete this page," the campaign, which has got more than 1,300 signatures, states.
One of the signatories of the petition said, "This page was informative, satire and unabusive! I see no reason why Facebook should have brought it down!"
In December 2014, Swamy had said that if his parody account on Facebook was not taken down immediately, the site would be facing a legal notice.
Desperate Congi&Aaptards seeing the huge knock out response of PTs have resorted to parody accounts.Facebook must act or face legal notice
— Subramanian Swamy (@Swamy39) December 14, 2014
The parody account, among other posts, uploaded pictures and memes that took a dig not only at Swamy, but also the BJP and its strong Hindutva leanings.
At one point, the parody account was reportedly creating confusion on social media, with Swamy's followers apparently taking the parody account for real.
While Subramanian Swamy has a verified account on Twitter on which he is quite active, he does not have a Facebook page.
The other page taken down by Facebook called Unofficial: Dr Subramanian Swamy was reportedly endorsed by the BJP leader. It is a fan page run by the ShankhNaad team, Scroll.in reported.
The confusion however at one point of time was such that after Swamy threatened to sue Facebook after the fan page was said to have been accidentally deleted by Facebook briefly instead of the parody account.
Facebook had then in a statement said, "Mr Swamy does not have a verified account on Facebook. Furthermore, Facebook Community Standards explicitly state: On Facebook people connect using their real names and identities. We ask that you refrain from publishing the personal information of others without their consent. Claiming to be another person, creating a false presence for an organization, or creating multiple accounts undermines community and violates Facebook's terms," a representative of the social network wrote, in a statement."
After this episode, the parody account added the word "unofficial" to its name.
In an interview to The News Minute last year, the person running the controversial account had said that he had been called a 'terrorist funded by Saudi' and also a person controlled by the 'Italian mafia', courtesy the account and the fans and haters it attracted.
"I wanted to a create a page on Baba Ramdev initially. But I chose Subramanian Swamy after seeing that his tweets and Facebook posts on him got thousands of likes and shares. He knew how to impress his hardcore Hindutva followers,” he said.
When asked whether his brand of humour is too irreverent, the parodist had replied saying, "Do you think it is irreverent? I never target religion, but ideology. This page was created to target an Ideology. It is Swamy and his sena that are making fun of Hinduism and our glorious history by mixing mythology to it. I am just making fun of their claims and their Vedic thinking".