'BJP, RSS control Facebook', says Rahul, as US media report on hate speech leads to slugfest

After a report in the Wall Stree Journal claimed that Facebook ignored applying its hate speech rules to BJP leaders in India, a slugfest has erupted between the Congress and the BJP. Seizing on the report, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and RSS of spreading "fake news" using Facebook and WhatsApp to influence the electorate, triggering a sharp counter-attack from Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who reminded the opposition party of the Cambridge Analytica issue.

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who heads the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, said the panel would like to hear from Facebook about the report. "The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology would certainly wish to hear from Facebook about these reports and what they propose to do about hate speech in India," he tweeted.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, reacting to Tharoor's comments, said these panels should not be made a political platform by members to satisfy "ego of their respective party leaders".

Hitting back at the Congress, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted about reported alliances between the party and Cambridge Analytica: "Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP and RSS. You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to weaponise data before the elections and now have the gall to question us," he said.

Prasad's reference to Cambridge Analytica was about the allegations the Congress faced in 2018 that the UK-based firm offered the party data mining of Facebook posts to influence voters in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress had rejected the charges. Countering Gandhi's remarks, Prasad also said, "The fact is that today access to information and freedom of expression has been democratised. It is no longer controlled by retainers of your family and that is why it hurts."

Congress spokesperson Ajay Maken said Facebook global should also hold a probe to ascertain the alleged links of some of its employees with the ruling party, to help protect its own credibility. Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted: "Facebook-Whatsapp sinister connection to BJP government exposed." 

What did the WSJ report claim?

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior Facebook executive, who oversaw operations in India, had blocked action against leaders associated with the BJP and other Hindutva groups. Ankhi Das is public policy director, Facebook, for India, South and Central Asia since 2011. Das reportedly had a role of overseeing "a team that decides what content is allowed on the platform".

The publication reported that Facebook employees had flagged inflammatory posts by T. Raja Singh. Raja Singh, a BJP MLA in Telangana, is no stranger to provocative speeches. "T. Raja Singh has said Rohingya Muslim immigrants should be shot, called Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques. By March of this year, they concluded Mr. Singh not only had violated the company’s hate-speech rules but qualified as dangerous, a designation that takes into account a person’s off-platform activities, according to current and former Facebook employees," the publication wrote.

However, Ankhi Das "opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence." Das reportedly told Facebook staff that punishing violations by BJP members "would damage the company’s business prospects in the country."