Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has removed two Facebook pages and three Instagram accounts linked to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA T Raja Singh. The action comes roughly two weeks after India Hate Lab (IHL) published a report highlighting the dissemination of hate speech on social media platforms. IHL is a project of the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a nonprofit think-tank based in Washington, USA.
Meta has removed two Facebook pages linked to Raja Singh with over one million followers and three Instagram accounts with over 155,000 followers, IHL announced on Thursday, February 20.
Raja Singh, known for his hate speeches against Muslims, was banned from Facebook and Instagram in 2020 under Meta’s “dangerous individuals and organizations” policy. Despite the ban, he and his supporters continued to circulate his hate speeches by creating an extensive network of proxy groups and pages during the 2024 general elections. These platforms frequently shared details about his events and amplified his latest hate-filled and dangerous speeches, the report said.
The IHL report, titled ‘Social Media and Hate Speech in India’, was published on February 10, detailing how social media platforms played a key role in amplifying hate speech events in 2024. The study analysed various types of mass gatherings, including political rallies, electoral campaign events, religious processions, protest marches, and nationalist gatherings.
According to the report, Facebook and YouTube were the primary platforms for hate speech dissemination. Facebook alone accounted for 495 hate speech videos, while YouTube had 211 such videos. The report also found that 266 anti-minority hate speeches by senior BJP leaders—mostly during the April-June general elections—were live-streamed on YouTube, Facebook, and X through official party accounts.
Out of 259 recorded instances of dangerous speech, including direct calls for violence, 219 were first shared or live-streamed on social media. Facebook was responsible for 164 instances (74.9%), followed by YouTube with 49 (22.4%), and Instagram with six.
The report found that Raja Singh had delivered 32 hate speeches at events across the country, including 22 instances where he explicitly incited violence, primarily against Muslims and, in some cases, against Christians. Of these, 16 speeches were initially shared on YouTube, while 13 appeared on Facebook.
Despite being officially banned from Facebook and Instagram, Raja Singh and his supporters managed to bypass the restrictions by creating and managing multiple proxy groups and pages.
Some of the largest Facebook groups promoting his content included: Raja Singh (Bhagyanagar) MLA, Raja Singh (Dhoolpet) MLA, RAJA SINGH YUVA SENA (RSYS), and Tiger Raja Singh Official Group. Additionally, several other pages, groups, and accounts in Hindi collectively had over 100,000 followers, the report said.
On Instagram, Raja Singh and his supporters managed four key accounts: @rajasinghmla, @t.usharajasinghofficial, @t.rajabhaimla1, and @t.rajabhaimla3. These accounts had a combined following of nearly 198,900 users.
