Numerous Facebook accounts linked to Saeed’s party removed
ISLAMABAD: Social media giant Facebook has disabled various accounts and pages of the Milli Muslim League (MML), a political faction of Mumbai terror attack mastermind Hafiz Saeedled Jamaat ud Dawa, local media reported.
The move comes a couple of months after Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg said it was his priority to make sure Facebook supports positive discourse and prevents interference in the upcoming elections of Pakistan, India, Brazil, Mexico and other countries, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.
Facebook officials recently contacted the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and offered to make an exclusive trend for general elections scheduled for July 25. The social networking site also offered help to local authorities to identify and remove fake pages of different political parties, the report added.
MML spokesperson Tabish Qayyum told journalists that Facebook removed numerous accounts of their candidates and workers without giving any reason. He described Facebook’s act as a gross violation of its own policy and of freedom of expression.
He condemned the Facebook action, saying that freedom of expression is the basic right of every human being and political party. “Elections are round-thecorner and all political parties are using social media for electioneering. Deleting MML candidates and workers’ accounts on a particular time is injustice,” he added.
He said that the Facebook administration has guaranteed special protection to pages of the political parties and accounts of their candidates in election 2018.
“All political parties are using social media to spread their message. Voters are being attracted by posters and video messages but the MML has been denied this facility without any reason.”
The ECP has not recognised the MML as a political party. In April, the US placed MML on its list of foreign terror organisations for its links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the terrorist group behind the 2008 Mumbai carnage.