ISLAMABAD – Ahead of the general election in Pakistan, Facebook hasdisabled numerous accounts and pages of the Islamist Milli Muslim League(MML), in a setback to the political outfit launched by Hafiz Saeed-ledJamaat-ud-Dawa, according to a media report today.

Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg had said that it was hispriority to make sure his social networking website supports positivediscourse and prevents interference in the upcoming elections in Pakistan,India, Brazil, Mexico and other countries. Recently, Facebook officialscontacted the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and offered help tolocal authorities to identify and remove fake pages of different politicalparties ahead of the July 25 general election, the Express Tribune reported.

The ECP has not recognised the MML as a political party. In April thisyear, the US placed the MML on its list of foreign terror organisations forits links with the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) terror group, which launched the2008 Mumbai carnage. After the ECP denied recognition to the MML, JuD chiefSaeed announced that around 200 candidates of his party would contest thepolls under the banner of a little-known party, the Allah-o-Akbar Tehreek(AAT), which is already registered with the election commission.

MML spokesperson Tabish Qayyum told journalists that Facebook has removednumerous accounts of their election candidates and workers without givingany reason. He said Facebook’s act is a gross violation of its own policyand sanction on freedom of expression. Elections are round-the-corner andall political parties are using social media for electioneering. DeletingMML candidates and workers’ accounts on a particular time is injustice, headded.All political parties are using social media to spread their message.Voters are being attracted by posters and video messages but the MML hasbeen denied this facility without any reason, he said.

Zuckerberg in recent statements has said that after identification ofRussian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook hassuccessfully deployed new Artificial Intelligence tools that removed tensof thousands of fake accounts.