Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’ Brien claimed in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that Facebook helped the Bharatiya Janata Party during the 2019 General Elections by blocking anti-BJP content, the Hindustan Times reported.

“Facebook’s senior management in India are de facto campaign managers for the BJP,” O’Brien claimed. He held up a book titled The Real Face of Facebook in India. “You won’t read about this in the newspaper because this tells a sordid story,” he said.

The Trinamool Congress legislator further alleged that Facebook’s Delhi office was “virtually an extended BJP information technology cell”. “Facebook censored anti-BJP news and put other parties with jeopardy and I say this with all responsibility,” O’Brien claimed. “The Facebook algorithm censores anti-BJP content.”

The MP also implied that social messaging app WhatsApp had been compromised. O’Brien said that in September 2018, BJP chief Amit Shah said: “We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public...whether sweet or sour, true or fake, we can do this only because we have 35 WhatsApp groups.”

The Trinamool Congress MP, speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the president’s address, also demanded a collegium to select the chief election commissioner, state funding of political parties and reintroduction of paper ballots.

Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra alleged in her speech that one man controls five television networks, and that the Information and Broadcasting Ministry keeps a watch on anti-government news.

The BJP won 303 seats out of 542 in the Lok Sabha elections. This included 18 out of 42 seats in West Bengal, reducing the Trinamool Congress’ tally from 34 to 22.