The parliamentary standing committee on information technology has decided to look into the allegations that Facebook does not take any action against the hateful comments posted by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators to seek favors from the Indian government. The committee is led by Kerala member of parliament and member of Indian National Congress, Shashi Tharoor.
Thanks. I am aware of the @WSJ article. I will look into the issues raised & of course seek to hear from those named.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 15, 2020
The allegations were made in an article published on August 14 in the Wall Street Journal and noted that T. Raja Singh, a BJP politician from Telangana representing the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, had put up a Facebook post that called Rohingya immigrants from Myanmar Muslim traitors and threatened to destroy mosques. Facebook took down the post, which was made in 2018, this Sunday (August 16, 2020).
Despite the post being in violation of Facebook’s hate speech rules and qualified as dangerous due to Singh’s off-platform activities, the company chose not to take any action against him till the report emerged. Citing the WSJ article, social activist Saket Gokhale had written to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who leads the parliamentary panel, on Saturday, August 15.
The report specifically names Facebook India’s head of public policy Ankhi Das, whose job description includes “lobbying India’s government on Facebook’s behalf”. Das has allegedly prevented takedown of hate speech content posted by members of the ruling BJP, even if it conflicted with the organisation’s global guidelines on hate speech.
According to some existing and former Facebook employees, Das reportedly told staff members that punishing the violations by leaders from BJP would damage the company’s business prospects in the country. Notably, India is the biggest global market for Facebook in terms of users, with 336 Mn active Facebook users and over 400 Mn WhatsApp users.
A Facebook spokesperson, Andy Stone, acknowledged that Das had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Singh a dangerous individual. But Stone also mentioned that her opposition wasn’t the sole factor in the company’s decision to let Singh remain on the platform. The spokesperson said Facebook is still considering whether a ban is warranted.
Facebook India maintained that it prohibits hate speech and content, and enforces its policies globally. A spokesperson said, “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy.”
This isn’t the first time Facebook has been accused of promoting hate speech in India, especially against the minority community. Last year, a report by non-profit rights group Avaaz suggested that Facebook was letting many incidents scot-free, even as the company claimed to have taken action against 65% of the hate speech on its platform before anyone reported it.
Avaaz revealed that Facebook is letting anti-Muslim hate speech spread unchecked across Assam, where the minority community is already being dogged by the National Registrar of India (NRC) issue. According to Avaaz, it reported 200 such cases of hate speech to Facebook. However, the social media company has removed less than half of them for breaching its community standards. The report from the group further highlighted that these hate speech abuses often label Bengali Muslims as criminals and terrorists, among other derogatory terms.
The post Facebook Under Fire Over Alleged BJP Links For Allowing Hate Speech appeared first on Inc42 Media.
Author: Kritti Bhalla
Source : https://inc42.com/buzz/facebook-under-fire-over-alleged-bjp-links-for-allowing-hate-speech/
Date : 2020-08-17T03:27:14.000Z