Union minister for information technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Saturday denied any role of the central government in the blocking of Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav’s official Facebook account, saying that Meta “blocked it as per its policies”.
After his page was restored following Friday’s suspension, Yadav took to his Facebook account and posted a quote by Jayaprakash Narayan on Saturday morning, commemorating the freedom fighter and activist’s birth anniversary.
“By complete revolution, I mean to see the most suppressed person of the society at the pinnacle of power. – People’s leader Jayaprakash Narayan,” Yadav’s post read.
What exactly happened?
The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister’s Facebook account, which has over 8 million followers, was suspended around 6 pm on Friday, news agency PTI reported.
Akhilesh Yadav frequently used his page to share his opinions, call out what he said were the government’s shortcomings, and interact with his supporters across the state.
The suspension of Yadav’s Facebook page sparked controversy as his party leaders and allies hit out at the BJP-led NDA regime at the Centre.
SP Lok Sabha MP from Ghosi, Rajeev Ravi, condemned the suspension of Yadav’s account and said in a post on X, “Facebook’s blocking of the account of the leader of the third-largest party in India’s Parliament, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, honourable @yadavakhilesh, is not only condemnable but also an attack on India’s democratic system. If this happened at the behest of the ruling party, it is a sign of cowardice.”
He warned that attempts to suppress the voice of socialists are a “mistake”.
SP spokesperson Fakhrul Hasan Chaand alleged that an undeclared emergency was imposed by the BJP government. Party
MLA Pooja Shukla also criticised Facebook and said that the social media platform has “dared to cross its limits” by blocking the page without any warning or notice. “This is not an ordinary account — this is Akhilesh Yadav ji , the voice of millions! Facebook must remember its boundaries — it cannot silence democracy. Samajwadis, it’s time to bring Facebook to its senses! Such arrogance will not be tolerated,” Shukla said.
Akhilesh Yadav’s page was suspended for allegedly posting a “violent sexual post”, HT reported earlier. On Saturday morning, a Meta spokesperson told HT that it has restored the page “once the issue was brought to our notice”.
SP spokesperson Deepak Ranjan also confirmed the suspension and subsequent restoration of Akhilesh Yadav’s Facebook page. SP chief spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary continued to raise concerns over the suspension, saying the main issue was “who was behind this?” He alleged that the “act was a clear attempt to block democratic opinion and truth”.
Centre had ‘no role’
Amid the allegations levelled by Samajwadi Party leaders against the Centre, IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said the government had “no role” in blocking the account, PTI reported.
“Facebook has taken action; the government has no role in this. There was a very abusive post on their account, which is why Facebook suspended the account according to their policy. There is no role of the government here”, Vaishnaw told reporters.
What were the posts? Yadav says ‘incorrectly flagged’
Speaking to the media on Saturday, Akhilesh Yadav said that his posts, which were regarding the death of a journalist and the suspicious death of a woman in Ballia, were incorrectly flagged as problematic.
“I got to know later on that my account has been suspended because there were some objections. I was told that the objection was ‘Adult Sexual Exploitation and Violence’. When I got the entire report, there were posts regarding a woman from Ballia, and there were posts regarding the murder of a journalist”, he told reporters.
Yadav claimed that he was highlighting the pressure put on journalists by the Bharatiya Janata Party.
“In the post I had written, that the death of a journalist, putting pressure on them… doing FIRs on them and putting undue pressure on them, all of the BJP’s tricks are being used here,” the former UP chief minister stated.
While questioning the suspension of his account, the SP chief also reaffirmed his commitment towards working on the ground and engaging with people in person, rather than entirely relying on social media.
“What was wrong with this? But we have understood that the more we work on the ground, our fight will become successful and that is why we will work on the ground itself, and do the work of enlightening the people,” Akhilesh Yadav said.
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