Social media giant Facebook is in the eye of a political storm in India. Fresh on the heels of allegations of political partisanship among high-ranking members of the company came bipartisan condemnations of the operations of Facebook India from the opposition parties and the Centre. Quoting a Wall Street Journal article that claimed senior members of the Facebook administration supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his 2014 election bid, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi decried Facebook and WhatsApp's "brazen assault on India's democracy and social harmony" and called for action against them. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, on his part, accused Facebook employees in India of “abusing” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior ministers. "It is doubly problematic when the bias of individuals becomes an inherent bias of the platform,” he wrote.
All these issues are expected to be addressed in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who will discuss the issue today. Representatives of Facebook and the Ministry of Information and Technology have been summoned by the panel.
What can be expected today?
The agenda of the committee's September 2 meeting is to "hear the views of the representatives of Facebook on the subject of safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space". However, considering the noises made by both the opposition and the Centre, a wide range of questions can be expected. Half of the 30-member parliamentary panel are BJP representatives, and the panel has five Congress members including Tharoor. Parliamentary panels, which consist of leaders from both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, work as extensions to the Parliament and address policy and legislative issues.
What will the opposition question? Concerns of "Facebook's political interference" in Indian affairs and uneven use of hate speech rules are expected to be raised. Rahul Gandhi has laid bare some of the issues on social media. One of the tweets highlighted a Wall Street Journal article which claimed senior executive Ankhi Das said that "Facebook lit a fire to his [Modi's] social media campaign and the rest is of course history." The report claimed that in a separate post disparaging the Congress, Das wrote: "It has taken thirty years of grassroots work to rid India of state socialism finally." Similar reports in TIME magazine and others, all claiming BJP political influence in Facebook, had cropped up in the past month. This alleged political partisanship within the organisation, and reported uneven use of hate speech rules will be one issue that will be raised by the panel. Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate had claimed that Facebook has different rules (in hate speech) for different countries and "that is not acceptable". "The rules for India are dramatically different and are bent as per their convenience."
What will the ruling party question? They are expected to raise issues of algorithmic and manual "targeting of the Centre" by Facebook, and issues of "anti-Hindu" and "anti-Modi" bias. BJP MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar claimed unequal treatment and censorship by Facebook against the ruling party. "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." BJP MP Rathore claimed anti-Hindu bias in the organisation. 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. 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."
BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya had 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," he had written. He claimed Ankhi Das's family had strong Trinamool Congress (TMC) connections.
Political slugfest
Tharoor's announcement that the panel would like to hear from Facebook about the Wall Street Journal report claiming BJP bias had evoked strong reaction from BJP members of the panel. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey alleged that the Congress leader has been using the platform to further his party's political agenda and even demanded his removal as chairman of the panel.
Now, a day ahead of the hearing, a fresh political slugfest has started on the matter with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claiming that international media has "exposed" Facebook and WhatsApp's "brazen assault" on India's democracy and social harmony. "No one, let alone a foreign company, can be allowed to interfere in our nation's affairs. They must be investigated immediately and when found guilty, punished," Gandhi tweeted.
Citing international media reports, the Congress party, in a statement, alleged that Facebook's global leadership has been aware of the biases and partisanship but remained willing participants, "proving that the unholy nexus between BJP-FB has hit the nerve-centre of our nation's democratic functioning". This blatant shielding of BJP-leaning Facebook pages is nothing short of a deliberate attempt to manipulate the public opinion in India, the party alleged. "The blasphemous nexus between the BJP and Facebook is for all to witness and must be investigated without delay," it said. The Congress has written two letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeking action against its India team and an independent probe into their functioning.
IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday wrote to Mark Zuckerberg accusing the social media platform's employees of supporting people from a political predisposition that lost successive elections, and "abusing" Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers. In a three-page letter to Facebook chief executive Zuckerberg, Prasad alleged "bias and inaction" by individuals in Facebook India team on complaints by people supportive of right-of-centre ideology. "I have been informed that in the run up to 2019 general elections in India, there was a concerted effort by Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to affected people who are supportive of right-of-centre ideology," Prasad wrote.
He cited “credible media reports” which claim that the Facebook India team, right from the managing director to other senior officials, is dominated by people who belong to a particular political belief. The minister stopped short of naming the Congress when he said: "People from this political predisposition have been overwhelmingly defeated by the people of in successive free and fair elections. After having lost all democratic legitimacy, they are trying to discredit India's democratic process by dominating the decision-making apparatus of important social media platforms.”
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".
-Inputs from agencies