Bajrang Dal's content did not necessitate ban, Facebook head tells parliamentary panel

Facebook India's head Ajit Mohan deposed before a parliamentary panel on December 16. Facebook's fact-checking team has not found any content that necessitated a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Mohan told a parliamentary panel on December 16.

Mohan was questioned about a recent WSJ report that alleged that the social media giant was reluctant to ban Bajrang Dal due to concerns over the security of its staff.

He deposed before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, chaired by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. The panel had called him on the issue of the citizens' data safety. Mohan was accompanied by Shivnath Thukral, the public policy director of Facebook.

Read: Facebook didn’t take action against Bajrang Dal to protect staff in India: Report

Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, along with Tharoor, questioned Mohan about the report suggesting that Facebook is reluctant on banning the Bajrang Dal on its platform due to financial reasons and concerns over the safety of its staff, sources told PTI.

The WSJ report suggested that, despite an internal assessment calling for a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Facebook had not cracked down on the Hindu nationalist group due to these reasons.

Replying to queries, Mohan suggested to the panel members that the Facebook fact team consultant has so far not found any such element in the content posted by the Bajrang Dal that is violative of its social media policies.

The WSJ report said that social media giant had gone soft on the Hindutva group despite the internal security team flagging it as a “dangerous organisation” that should be “banned” from Facebook, because of business and political considerations also.

Further quizzing Mohan, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey asked why Facebook did not deny the WSJ report and termed it as fake if the Bajrang Dal content was not found to be violative of its social media policies.

Notably, the Bajrang Dal shared a video claiming responsibility for an attack on a Delhi church, which got almost 2.5 lakh views on Facebook. The company's security team also flagged two other right-wing groups, namely, the Sanatan Sanstha and Sri Ram Sena.