The Peace and Harmony Committee of Delhi government has issued a new ‘final’ summons to Facebook India over allegations of “deliberate inaction on the part of (the) social media platform to apply hate speech rules”. Facebook representatives are to appear before the committee on Wednesday.
The committee took the decision to summon the social media giant after complaints of ‘deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content in India by BJP politicians’ were reported by multiple US publications. “Any defiance to the subsequent notice for appearance shall be deemed to be an act of breach of constitutionally-guaranteed privileges of the committee,” the committee’s statement read. Earlier Facebook India executives had refused to appear for questioning on September 15, saying that only Central government has the authority to summon intermediaries like Facebook.
“Frivolous technical grounds cited by Facebook smacks of a pre-mediated attempt to non-cooperation,” the committee head Raghav Chadha has said. If Facebook India fails to appear again the committee will initiate breach of privilege proceedings against it, which will lead to penal jurisdiction of the house.
Facebook has already met the parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor this month and is due to appear before that panel again.
The Norteast Delhi riots in January, allegedly fueled by hate speech videos by many political leaders caused the death of nearly 50 people.
