Why Meta shareholders are questioning Facebook's 'political entanglement' in India

Meta's annual general meeting is scheduled to be held on Mar 31

In the upcoming annual general meeting, Meta shareholders will seek accountability over allegations of Facebook's "political entanglement and content management biases in India", marking the increasing glare on the Big Tech company in areas of privacy, online abuse, human rights impact and so on.

According to a filing on the United States' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Meta shareholders have floated the Proposal Seven, termed 'Assessing Allegations of Biased Operations in Meta's Largest Market'.

This proposal, along with few others will come for voting in the upcoming Meta AGM. However, Meta's board of directions has recommended a vote against this particular shareholder proposal.

Let's take a look at what this proposal talks about, and what Meta has responded.

What is Proposal Seven?

This proposal addresses allegations against Facebook regarding hate speech dissemination, failure to address risks and political bias, and concerns about content moderation and transparency.

The proponent of this resolution is SumofUS, a global non-profit advocacy organisation and an online community, which has now been renamed Eko. It is supported by activist Mari Mennel-Bell, SEC filings showed.

What does the shareholders' proposal specifically say?

"Facebook is apparently a critical catalyst of religious violence in India from disseminating anti-Muslim hate speech, and failing to flag posts and speakers who pose risks in this regard," the proposal said.

The proposal pointed out that in the months preceding the 2020 Delhi riots, incendiary comments against a religion were made by "the head of a powerful North Indian temple" in a video over Facebook which has been been viewed well over 40 million times.

The proposal, while attributing to a Wall Street Journal article, said that former Facebook official Ankhi Das pushed back against employees wanting to label a BJP politician as dangerous and to ban him from Facebook. "Das argued that punishing (the legislator) would hurt Facebook's business in India," the SEC filing said.

Apart from that, the resolution also pointed out that  Shivnath Thukral, Meta's public policy head in India "assisted in BJP's 2014 election campaign". The proposal also said that Meta has "poor capacity" when it comes to content moderation in India's 22 officially recognised  languages.

What are shareholders requesting from Meta?

Shareholders are requesting the company to commission a non-partisan assessment of allegations of political entanglement and content management biases in its operation in India - specifically on how the platform has been used to "foment ethnic and religous conflic and hatred".

Shareholders recommended that assessment can evaluate on the basis of political bias in company activities and whether content management algorithms and personnel in India were at scale to "curtail mass dissemination of hate speech and disinformation".

How did Meta respond to allegations in the shareholders' proposal?

In a five-point response to the shareholders' proposal, available on SEC, Meta said that it is committed to respecting human rights. "We are dedicated to building a team that reflects the diversity of the people, all around the globe, who use our products and services."

Meta said it is committed to ensure safety and integrity in all jurisdictions in which it operates, including India, and it has devoted considerable resources to promote respect and safety for users in India.

"We already provide extensive disclosure on our human rights policies and practices and have published an independent human rights impact assessment regarding potential human rights risks in India that we believe addresses the proposal," it added.

Will Meta comply with the shareholders' request on commissioning an independent assessment of the allegations?

"Given our ongoing efforts to address this topic, the requested report is unnecessary and would not provide additional benefit to our shareholders," Meta said.

Who is supporting this proposal ?

Indian digital rights group Internet Freedom Foundation has launched a joint campaign along with the proponents of this proposal, Eko, to raise awareness about Proposal Seven among users of Meta platforms. In the campaign, these groups are urging shareholders to vote in favour of Proposal Seven by May 31.

Glass Lewis, a leading advisory service, which manages more than $40 trillion in assets, as well as provides institutional investors with guidance on resolutions has also recommended shareholders vote ‘Yes’ on the proposal, IFF said.

Who are Meta's shareholders?

Founder, chairperson and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is the largest shareholder with 13.4 percent stake. Other large shareholders are asset managers Vanguard with 6.9 percent share, BlackRock with 5.8 percent and Fidelity with 4.7 percent share. Additionally, Zuckerberg also has super-voting rights.