New Delhi, April 1: Shortly after social media giant Facebook announced the termination of 687 pages linked to India's largest opposition party, the Congress issued a statement, denying any links to the accounts and pages which have been cracked down. The party has demanded Facebook issue the list of banned pages, along with evidence to prove that they were linked to the Congress.

"This is to clarify no official pages run by INC have been taken down. Additionally, all pages run by our verified volunteers are also unaffected. In the meantime, we are awaiting a response from Facebook to provide us a list of all pages/accounts that they have taken down," said the statement issued by the party. Facebook Removes 687 Pages, Accounts Linked to Congress Party Ahead of Lok Sabha Elections 2019.

The BJP has welcomed the Facebook's decision to terminate the 687 said pages, saying that the peddlers of fake news have been nailed by the social media networking site. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the action was preceded by an inquiry.

"When inquiry was done, it was found that those individuals were linked to Congress IT cell. Congress is desperate therefore resorting to these types of dubious means to claim support but ppl are sure of what they have seen of Narendra Modi government," Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

"Today a very historical development has taken place. Owners of those accounts were not known. It was fake. It was used to spread falsehood against Narendra Modi government," he added.

Apart from the 687 pages, Facebook has also removed 103 pages, groups and accounts on its platform and Instagram for engaging in similar behaviour as part of a network that originated in Pakistan.

In a blog post, Facebook - which has over 200 million users in India - said the pages and accounts removed had spent around USD 39,000 for ads on Facebook, paid for in Indian rupees. The first ad ran in August 2014 and the most recent ad ran in March 2019.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 01, 2019 06:48 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).