On August 15, the Wall Street Journal published about Facebook’s hate speech rules and how the BJP has been given a lot of leeway, courtesy of Facebook India’s public policy head Ankhi Das. She also holds the post for south and central Asia. Following this, a slugfest erupted between the Congress and the BJP on Sunday over the claims that Facebook ignored applying its hate speech rules to politicians of the ruling party in India.
This now involves senior leaders of the Congress and the BJP, Facebook, and the Parliamentary Standing Committee for Information Technology.
The story starts with Raja Singh, the lone BJP MLA in Telangana and a known rabble rouser with a history of hate speech. In this instance, it’s a post on his official Facebook page that reportedly said Rohingya Muslim immigrants must be shot, said Muslim are traitors and he also threatened to raze mosques. Facebook’s employees classified this as hate speech and said it was dangerous.
However, the rules didn’t apply to him as it was opposed by Ankhi Das, according to WSJ. This is said to have taken place for at least three other “Hindu nationalist individuals and groups” because it would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.
India is said to be FB’s largest market by user size and has had frequent run-ins with the government (for example, Facebook-owned WhatsApp has been awaiting regulatory approval for two years for its payments service. Earlier, it tried to launch Free Basics, which was blocked in 2016 on grounds of violating net neutrality).
The WSJ story also raises posts made by MP and former Union Minister Anantkumar Hegde about Muslims spreading the coronavirus in India.
The report states that the company took no action about posts regarding love jihad as well.
“The current and former Facebook employees said Ms. Das’s intervention on behalf of Mr. Raja Singh is part of a broader pattern of favoritism by Facebook toward Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu hard-liners,” the WSJ report stated.
Another allegation is that prior to the general election in 2019, Facebook announced it took down pages inauthentic pages pertaining to the Pakistani military and the Congress party, but failed to disclose that inauthentic BJP pages were taken down as well — this too, because of Das.
This story comes even as hate speech becomes an increasingly important issue for Facebook across countries, one over which it has faced a boycott from advertisers as well in the US. Accusations of political bias are also hardly new to the social media giant.
The United States' Congress has summoned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and investigated its role in election manipulation in the past. The UK too has issued warnings to Facebook. Facebook was accused of similar interference in Brazil too.
Nor is this new for the BJP. Home Minister Amit Shah was famously quoted as saying in 2018: “We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true or fake”.
Allegations about Facebook’s influence or about Das are not new. In 2017, a story by The Ken had called her ‘Facebook’s most powerful official in India’ and spoke about her influence. Bloomberg reported that in some of the world’s biggest democracies, including India, Facebook’s employees “have become de facto campaign workers”, and that it helped build Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence.
A book has also been devoted to this. In June 2019, soon after the BJP’s sweeping victory in the general elections titled ‘The Real Face of Facebook in India’ by Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Cyril Sam reportedly speaks of the influence Facebook and Facebook-owned WhatsApp have over political outcomes, and how it has aided the BJP.
It is also important to note that WhatsApp’s largest market by users is also India, and is also key to their election campaigns.
Accusing the BJP and the RSS of controlling Facebook and WhatsApp in India, the Congress demanded a probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) into the charges mentioned in the report, saying they threaten the foundation of Indian democracy and need to be investigated.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted: "BJP and RSS control Facebook and WhatsApp in India. They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate”.
Addressing a virtual press conference, Congress spokesperson and former Union Minister Ajay Maken said: "There are 40 crore Indians on WhatsApp and over 28 crore on Facebook. So, a probe is necessary into the commercial dealings, propagation of hate content, and connection of Facebook and WhatsApp employees with the BJP."
"The bias and alignment of the Facebook India's leadership team with the BJP and RSS is not limited to just their Head of Public Policy in India. There are many others in that leadership team with a close working relationship with the BJP," he added
The Congress said that the government too should clarify the "quid pro quo" with WhatsApp and Facebook and what type of business dealings they had with the government.
"What gave Facebook the guts and the gumption to intrude, interfere, and intervene in the world's largest democratic exercise? First and foremost, we must remember that this is not just about Facebook. Facebook also owns WhatsApp. Facebook and WhatsApp control information, news, and communication for millions of Indians. And the BJP controls Facebook and WhatsApp in India," said Congress Data Department Chairman Praveen Chakravorty.
"India's rich electoral democracy cannot be sacrificed at the altar of Facebook and WhatsApp," the Congress asserted.
Congress leader and Thiruvananthapuram MP 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.
Our Parliamentary committee will, in the normal course, consider testimony under the topic “Safeguarding citizens’ rights & prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms”. The subject is squarely within the IT Cmt’s mandate& @Facebook has been summoned in the past. https://t.co/saoK8B7VCN
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) August 16, 2020
BJP MP Nishikant Dubey, reacting to Tharoor's comments, said the subjects which are permissible and are in accordance with rules of parliamentary standing committees could be raised. But at the same time, he added that these panels should not be made a political platform by members to satisfy "ego of their respective party leaders".
The Indian Express reported that sources of the committee will write to Facebook on Monday for an explanation, and it will summon the company.
However, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, also a member of the committee, has said that there were many complaints of Facebook “unfairly censoring many nationalist, pro-India or pro-Hindu voices”, and that he will take the matter up
In response to the Congress, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, "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.
Countering Gandhi's remarks, Prasad also said, "The fact is that today access to information and freedom of expression has been democratized. It is no longer controlled by retainers of your family and that is why it hurts."
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 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Congress had rejected the charges.
A Facebook spokesperson said that the platform prohibits hateful content. “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position/party affiliation. We're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy”.
The Times of India reported that Ankhi Das has filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell unit of Delhi Police against those issuing her violent threats to life online.