New Delhi: Facebook on Monday removed as many as 15 pages and accounts linked to individuals related to the IT firm which manages the mobile application – NaMo app – for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as a part of a crackdown on fake accounts and pages ahead of Lok Sabha elections.
According to media reports, the social media giant in a statement said that it had removed 12 accounts and one page, plus one group and one Instagram account, which linked to individuals related to an Indian IT firm named Silver Touch. Among other things, they shared content on the BJP and the alleged misconduct of its political rivals, Facebook said.
Asked what was Silver Touch’s link with politics, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher told news agency Reuters that Facebook only knew it was an Indian IT firm that, among other things, worked for Modi’s BJP. The only link Facebook saw was that the company was associated with a mobile application promoted by Modi, Gleicher said, without elaborating.
“We didn’t find any links between the campaigns we’ve removed today, but they used similar tactics by creating networks of accounts to mislead others,” Gleicher said in a statement.
Reuters: Facebook says it has removed 15 pages and accounts linked to individuals related to an Indian IT firm named Silver Touch, a company associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s NaMo app pic.twitter.com/rCwnA2Jpnu
— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2019
Likewise, Facebook removed 687 pages linked to Congress IT Cell.
Ms Kalinga