NEW DELHI / BENGALURU (Reuters) – Facebook (FB.O) and its top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, face internal questions from employees about how political content is regulated in its largest market, according to sources with direct knowledge and internal messages seen by Reuters.
Ankhi Das, Facebook’s Director of Public Policy for India, South and Central Asia, can be seen on her Facebook page in this illustration taken on August 19, 2020. REUTERS / Adnan Abidi / Illustration
The world’s largest social network is fighting a public relations and political crisis in India, after the Wall Street Journal reported that Das opposed opposing the company’s hate speech rules on a party politician of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who in messages had called traitors of Muslims.
In the United States and around the world, Facebook employees are asking questions about whether adequate content regulation procedures and practices were followed by the India team, sources familiar with interviews told Reuters.
An open letter written to Facebook’s management by 11 employees on one internal platform, and viewed by Reuters, demands that business leaders recognize and indicate ‘anti-Muslim bigotry’ and ensure more policy consistency.
The letter also demanded that the “Facebook policy team in India (and elsewhere) include diverse representation.”
“It is difficult not to feel frustrated and saddened by the reported incidents … We know we are not alone here. Employees in the company are expressing a similar sentiment, ‘the letter said. “The Muslim community on Facebook would like to hear from Facebook leadership on our question.”
Facebook and Das did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Facebook has been under fire in recent years for its lax approach to fake news content, through state-sponsored disinformation campaigns and violent content spread across its platforms.
The WSJ article said Das staff had said that applying hate speech rules to politicians close to Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government would “” damage the business perspective of the company in the country. ”
Following the report, in response to questions from Reuters about the case, Facebook said it bans hate speech that incites violence and maintains policies without taking into account political position or party affiliation.
“While we know there is more to do, we are making progress in maintaining and conducting regular audits,” said the company, which has more than 300 million users in India.
One of the sources said that the Indian leadership of Facebook should answer difficult questions about what really happened, “There will be checking on what really happened.”
A second source, familiar with the comments, said that Facebook employees discussed whether there should be strict separation between government relations and content policy teams, and that “there is an internal discussion about the processes (content moderation).”
Following the article, Facebook defended Indian chief Ajit Mohan Das, whose title is director, Public Policy, India, South and Central Asia, and the company’s policies in an internal community post, also seen by Reuters.
The WSJ “article does not reflect the person I know or the extremely complex issues we face every day with benefits from Ankhi and the expertise of the Public Policy team,” Mohan wrote.
Mohan also wrote the company is “confident that the article’s claim that political relations influence decision – making in India is inaccurate and without merit.”
A WSJ spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
The Indian Congress opposition party has called for a parliamentary probe into Facebook, while BJP lawmakers in turn accused Facebook of censoring nationalist votes.
Das, 49, is considered as the most influential directors of business in India and has been central to the rise of Facebook in India since joining the company in 2011.
“She has created a niche for herself (in India),” said a person who worked closely with Das on policy issues.
One former Facebook executor in Asia and a former Indian government official described Das as very sharply and politically connected. A second former employee said Das had always spoken out about problems in the company.
Das did not comment on the controversy, but her sister Rashmi, who has publicly acknowledged her own ties to a student wing near the BJP, told India Today TV on Tuesday, “we sisters are made of very sultry things.”
“I’m sure Ankhi will handle it very competently,” she said.
Report by Aditya Kalra in New Delhi and Munsif Vengattil in Bengaluru; Edited by Euan Rocha and Nick Zieminski
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