On August 14, a report alleging collusion between social media giant Facebook and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stirred up a whole new hornets' nest.
The investigative report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) said Ankhi Das, Facebook's director of public policy for India, South Asia and Central Asia, favoured the BJP by turning a blind eye to disruptive content from the ruling party's leaders and ideological affiliates for the fear of losing out on business in the country.
BJP leaders that found a mention in the report
It alleged that despite several instances of T Raja Singh, a BJP leader from Telangana, and a few others associated with the party, posting content on the platform that violated its guidelines, the company did not apply hate speech rules to monitor such cases.
These instances cited in the report were based on WSJ's interactions with current and former Facebook employees.
Singh, however, denied all allegations in a video he shared on Twitter, two days after the WSJ report came out. He tweeted, "I have got to know many FB pages are using my name. Let me clarify I'm not having any official page, I'm not responsible for any of their post."
BJP leader and Member of Parliament Anantkumar Hegde was another name that featured in the report. Lack of action against him for his "corona jihad" remarks against the country's Muslims was cited as another instance of the social media company willingly ignoring hate speech by the party members.
The video posted by suspended Kapil Mishra, a party leader who gained much notoriety over his veiled threats to protesters during the nationwide anti-CAA protests, also found a mention.
However, these men who were allegedly in violation of the company's hate speech rules, still continue to have accounts on Facebook and Instagram (owned by Facebook). In fact, even after Kapil Mishra's video was removed, the engagement on his page reportedly surged to over 20.5 lakhs from just a couple hundred thousand.
The report did mention that some posts by these people were taken down from the platform when WSJ contacted the company for comment.
Congress steps into the picture, launches attack
The Congress, the main opposition party in India, launched an attack on the BJP, and accused it of making attempt to exercise control over social media. The matter gained political heat with Shashi Tharoor, chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on information technology, taking note of the matter.
In a no-holds-barred attack, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi alleged on Twitter that Facebook and WhatsApp were controlled by the ruling party and their ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) in India.
He said, "BJP & RSS control Facebook & Whatsapp in India. They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate. Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook."
Next comes the clarification from Facebook
However, Facebook has clarified that it prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence.
"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 are making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement as quoted by news agency ANI.
Ankhi Das, the company executive in the eye of the storm, also lodged an FIR, alleging that she had received death threats and was being subjected to online and offline abuse. She has filed a complaint with the Cyber Cell Unit in Delhi against numerous people for "issuing violent life threats through online posting or publishing of content".
Followed by the BJP vs Congress Twitter battle
The whole fiasco saw top leaders of both Indian parties trading barbs.
Union IT Minister and BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad responded to Rahul Gandhi's remarks by reminding him of the three-year-old Cambridge Analytica row. Prasad tweeted, "Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS. You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections & now have the gall to question us?"
Congress leader and MP Manish Tewari also shared the WSJ report on his Twitter handle and said, "I wonder how patriotic is it to take the help of foreign entities in elections?"
In another tweet, he flagged, "I am informed that Facebook has funded number of 'ventures' both Media and non Media related in India. In interests of transparency Facebook must reveal who, to what extent and for what purposes has Facebook funded entities based in India."
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