Facebook came under scrutiny on Friday as Wall Street Journal reported that social media giant was biased in enforcing its hate speech policy in India so as to not hurt ‘business’ by ruining its relationship with the ruling party.
The report started a war of words between BJP and Opposition leaders with the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology Chairman Shashi Tharoor saying that he will look into the matter.
“We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally regardless of anyone’s political position or party affiliation”, Facebook spokesperson said while refuting the allegations. He also added that while there is still more to do, Facebook is making progress on enforcement and is conducting regular audits of the process to ensure fairness and accuracy.
WSJ had stated that Facebook’s top public policy executive Ankhi Das opposed enforcing hate speech policy on BJP politicians, giving the example of a Telengana legislator. Some accounts flagged on ‘promoting or participating in violence’ were let off the hook because of Das’s intervention citing ‘commercial interests.’
BJP & RSS control Facebook & Whatsapp in India.
They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate.
Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook. pic.twitter.com/Y29uCQjSRP
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 16, 2020
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Twitter said that BJP and RSS control Facebook and Whatsapp in India and use it to spread fake news and influence the electorate to which Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad replied that Congress had weaponised social media data before last year’s elections.
Facebook had previously been accused of sidelining with Republican party in the U.S. and summoned to a parliamentary committee questioning for the same.