Meta restores TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee’s Facebook page after legal notice

Meta on Thursday restored the Facebook account of Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee hours after his legal counsel sent a legal notice to the tech giant alleging “alteration of personal information”, people aware of the development said.

Late on Wednesday night, the Diamond Harbour MP sent a legal notice to Meta, the parent company of social media platform Facebook, alleging that there was “unauthorised access to the FB account and alteration of personal information”.

“My client’s ‘Bio’ on his official Facebook page has stopped reflecting the term All India Trinamool Congress,” the notice sent by Sanjay Basu, advocate, stated.

That the term has gone missing from his social media page was brought to Banerjee’s notice on Tuesday.

“It is rather alarming that the Facebook account belonging to my client, which is also verified by Facebook with Blue Tick has been unauthorisedly accessed and critical details regarding my client have been illegally altered, without any intimation to my client,” the legal notice stated.

The notice sought a prompt and thorough investigation by Meta Platforms into the alleged breach along with an acknowledgement of the “harm” caused to Banerjee’s reputation and an unconditional apology within seven days.

Later in the day, people aware of the developments said that Banerjee’s Facebook page was restored and the term All India Trinamool Congress was visible again on his page.

HT had sent a mail to Meta seeking a response on the developments. There was, however, no comment from the tech company till the time the report was filed.