Facebook cracks down on Indian political party’s pages

Facebook on Monday removed hundreds of pages connected to India’s opposition party ahead of the country’s election.

The social media giant said in a statement it removed 687 pages with ties to the IT Cell of the Indian National Congress (INC).

The fake accounts posted “local news and political issues, including topics like the upcoming elections, candidate views, the INC and criticism of political opponents including the Bharatiya Janata Party,” the party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“While the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our review found that it was connected to individuals associated with an INC IT Cell,” Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy at Facebook, said in the statement.

{mosads}The company said 15 more fake accounts were removed for similar behavior were linked to Indian IT firm Silver Touch.

The Indian elections begin April 11 and will end on May 19.