On Tuesday, responding to an article in the Wall Street Journal that claimed 'pro-BJP' bias in Facebook, BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed the "alleged bias for the Right can only be described as a hatchet job by some Left elements in Facebook against Facebook". In an opinion piece, he wrote: "It is incomplete to say the least, because it either ignores or overlooks the reality that alleged objectionable political content emerges from all sides of the political spectrum. "
"It is a relatively easy way of gaslighting or doxxing those who speak from the Right or those who support the Right’s right to be equally heard. I noticed that post the WSJ article, Facebook India has immediately taken down the content relating to only two BJP MPs, whilst leaving many others on the other end of political spectrum, like Owaisi and some Congress names, untouched—pretty clearly proving that this wasn’t about setting of any new equitable standard but a way of muting the Right," he wrote.
Currently, Facebook is facing a political nightmare in India, with mounting attacks from all sides of the political spectrum. The Congress and the CPI(M) insisted on a probe by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) over the Wall Street Journal's report that the social media giant refused to apply hate speech rules to certain BJP politicians even as the social media giant asserted that its policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation. The Congress alleged that Facebook's "inaction" against hate content "destabilises democracy" in India and that it was applying different rules for different countries which was unacceptable.
In the report published on Friday, the US newspaper cited interviews with unnamed Facebook insiders to claim that one of its senior India policy executives intervened in internal communication to stop a permanent ban on a BJP MLA from Telangana after he allegedly made communally charged posts.
Echoing the demand of the Congress, the CPI(M) too pressed for a JPC probe into the allegations. "The Politburo of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the role of global social media behemoth, Facebook, as exposed by the Wall Street Journal, particularly the functioning of its India policy chapter. Facebook is not following its own laid down policy against communal hate content," the party alleged in a statement.
What the Right wants
Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sought to remind the opposition party of the Cambridge Analytica issue, referring to the allegations the Congress faced in 2018 that the UK-based firm offered the party data mining of Facebook posts to influencing voters in 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress had rejected the charges then.
In an op-ed piece, BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya highlighted alleged individual political biases in top leadership in Facebook India. "The appointment of Congress leader Manish Tewari on the board of Atlantic Council, which has been outsourced the job of eliminating political propaganda from the platform by Facebook, should not have gone unnoticed but it has. Adding to the long and questionable list of such high-profile appointments is Ajit Mohan, MD of Facebook India, who used to work with the Planning Commission during UPA days. Sidharth Mazumdar, another employee in Facebook’s public policy team, previously worked for Sonia Gandhi’s strategist and senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, is known to have uncharitable views about the Prime Minister and other senior ministers. It is also well-known that Ankhi Das, the senior Facebook executive in Congress’s cross-hair currently, and head of Facebook’s public policy in India and South Asia, has her family aligned to the Trinamool Congress."
Ankhi Das, a public policy director with the social media giant, was directly quoted by the WSJ report as the person who blocked action against leaders associated with the BJP and other Hindutva groups. Das had since filed a police complaint claiming online harassment and "that she was living under constant fear and threat".
BJP MP and former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore accused the company of being 'anti-Right' and 'anti-Hindu'. He wrote in The Indian Express: "What the Left wants is not control over hate speech but unfettered freedom of hate speech to its ideologically-aligned members. That is why you would hear Mark Zuckerberg quote Kapil Mishra but say nothing on Sonia Gandhi who exhorted people in Delhi to do aar paar ki ladai [prepare for the final battle]. There are millions of posts mocking Hindu gods and abusing right-of-centre leaders. But Facebook’s advanced algorithms and community standards fail to catch them. However, unsuspecting common people running pro-right-of-centre pages are suspended with no right to appeal."
Former RSS ideologue K.N. Govindacharya called for an investigation into reports of tech giants interfering with Indian elections and democracy, and an examination "into the big legal paradox in operations of tech giants".
BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, in a tweet, said: "Many have complained that Facebook is unfairly censoring many nationalist, pro-India or pro-Hindu voices. As member of Standing Committee on IT, I will take it up with concerned in appropriate forum."
What the opposition wants
At a press conference, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said India is one of the most thriving democracies in the world and anybody or any platform that undermines it by "indulging in hate mongering must not be spared". "With all responsibility, I will say that Facebook's inaction destabilises our democracy. More often than not Facebook takes no action and even worse allows objectionable content to continue despite being brought to notice," she alleged.
Shrinate also claimed that Facebook has different rules for different countries and "that is not acceptable". "The rules for India are dramatically different and are bent as per their convenience. In Singapore while deposing before policy makers, Facebook said they were a social media platform and can't take down content unless it was brought to notice. Ironically in India, despite external complaints and red flags being raised by their own trust and safety teams, hate content has been allowed to wilfully continue," Shrinate alleged.
She said the social media company has removed pages, issued press releases across the world including the US and Turkey, citing "coordinated inauthentic behaviour", but wondered why it has never done something similar in connection with rumour mongering and hate speeches in India. "There is enough and more objectionable content that exist on its platform. Some of which incites violence, some of which is abusive against women, some of which targets particular communities and groups," she claimed.
What next?
In its reaction, Facebook said the company's social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation. However, Facebook, which counts India among its largest markets globally, acknowledged that "there is more to do".
A Delhi assembly panel on peace and harmony also said on Monday that it will summon Facebook officials over complaints about the social media platform's alleged "deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content" in India. "Summons are set to be sent for appearance of the officials concerned of Facebook and more importantly, Ankhi Das, in due course to ensure their presence before the committee for participating in the relevant proceedings and the committee shall convene its meeting this week to initiate the proceedings forthwith," an official statement said.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology, has said that the panel would like to hear from Facebook about the report and what they propose to do about hate-speech in India.
