A report in The Wall Street Journal about a Facebook executive in India allegedly favouring the BJP is causing ripples not only in Indian politics.
Reuters reported on Wednesday that Facebook and Ankhi Das, the executive at the centre of the controversy, are facing questions from employees of the social media giant about how political content was regulated in India, its biggest market.
Reuters based its report on comments from sources and internal posts at Facebook.
"In the United States and around the world, Facebook employees are raising questions about whether adequate procedures and content regulation practices were being followed by the India team," Reuters quoted sources as saying.
In addition, 11 Facebook employees have written an open letter to the company's leadership, demanding they "acknowledge and denounce 'anti-Muslim bigotry' and ensure more policy consistency".
"The letter also demanded that Facebook’s 'policy team in India (and elsewhere) includes diverse representation'," Reuters reported.
“It is hard not to feel frustrated and saddened by the incidents reported... We know we’re not alone in this. Employees across the company are expressing similar sentiment. The Muslim community at Facebook would like to hear from Facebook leadership on our asks," the letter said.
In addition to the open letter, Facebook employees are also calling for policy changes. "Facebook employees were discussing whether there should be strict separation between government relations and content policy teams, and there is 'an internal debate happening about the (content moderation) processes'," Reuters reported.
Despite being under fire from all sides, Ankhi Das has received support from a senior Facebook official.
Facebook India head Ajit Mohan defended Ankhi Das in an internal community post.
"The WSJ 'article does not reflect the person I know or the extraordinarily complex issues we face everyday that benefits from Ankhi and the Public Policy team’s expertise,' Mohan wrote. Mohan also wrote the company is 'confident that the article’s claim that political affiliations influence decision making in India is inaccurate and without merit," Reuters reported about Mohan's post.
