Updated: September 1, 2020 2:12:39 pm
Facebook Says It May Block Content To Contain Business Risks
In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections in January 2019, BJP pointed out to Facebook India a list of 44 pages that opposed the party, claiming they were “in violation of expected standards” and were posting posts “that did not conform. to the facts. “
As of Monday, 14 are no longer on the platform.
BJP-flagged pages on the platform include the official Bhim Army account, the satire site “We Hate BJP”, unofficial Congressional support pages, and a page called “The Truth of Gujarat” that mainly shares verifications. Alt News facts.
Of the removed pages are sites in support of journalists Ravish Kumar and Vinod Dua.
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In November last year, the BJP also asked Facebook India to reinstate 17 deleted pages and “monetize” two right-wing news websites: The Chaupal and OpIndia. Monetization refers to allowing pages to receive advertising revenue for their content.
The 17 pages are all back on the platform. Facebook told BJP IT Cell director Amit Malviya that the pages were removed “by mistake.”
The founder of “The Chaupal”, Vikas Pandey, told The Indian Express that monetization of his site was not allowed after Facebook revoked its monetization in March 2019. OpIndia did not respond to inquiries.
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The 17 pages re-established by Facebook India at the request of BJP share content almost exclusively from Postcard News, many in Kannada. None of these pages are directly labeled as connected to a political party.
One of the 17 pages was named after Postcard News founder Mahesh V Hegde. Hegde was arrested in Bangalore in March 2018 on charges of promoting enmity between communities and outraging religious sentiments by publishing “fake news,” according to police at the time.
The Bangalore police then conducted an investigation to see if Hegde had the backing of the BJP leaders. Hegde was represented in court by BJP Tejasvi deputy Surya. Facebook had removed the official Postcard News page in July 2018. Hegde did not respond to requests for comment.
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These requests came through emails between Malviya and Facebook India public policy executives Ankhi Das and Shivnath Thukral. Das and Thukral declined to comment.
In emails from February 2019, Malviya referred to a meeting where he and Facebook India had discussed “protecting” certain BJP-leaning Facebook pages. Malviya told The Indian Express that Thukral had suggested this idea at a January 2019 meeting to address pages that the BJP believes have been “misdirected.”
A Facebook spokesperson said: “There is no term like shielding. We have a process called Cross-Check, which is a system for reducing application errors by ensuring that the content of some pages and profiles receives a second layer of review to ensure that we have applied our policies correctly. It does not prevent enforcement action if a violation of our Community Guidelines is detected. “
Malviya said: “There were pages like Narendra Modi Support and other big pages run by genuine volunteers who were afraid of being taken down. In the past, we spoke to Facebook and asked them to do the right thing. They hardly answer us. We were looking for a more transparent and fair system. Clearly, they have thought otherwise. “
When asked if public policy has input on content decisions, the Facebook spokesperson said that public policy has input only if the designated content policy team decides to attract other teams.
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The spokesperson added: “The Public Policy team, which also includes members of government policy and outreach, was the first point of contact for all political parties during the 2019 elections. During the campaign, various parties escalated the problems they faced. its official and support pages. Our internal process requires that these referrals be notified to various teams of specialists who decide and enforce these referrals. Global choices teams help make decisions alongside content policy teams that monitor compliance based on community standards, as well as the operations team that monitor compliance. Like other stakeholders, such as civil society, the media or government institutions, all political parties can point out with us the problems they face. “
Malviya sent out a reminder of the pages to be “protected” in November, listing eight pages that are some of the largest BJP support pages on the platform. None of them are officially linked to the party on the platform. These include “The Chaupal” and “PMO India: Report Card”.
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Das, director of public policy at Facebook India, reported The Wall Street Journal, had opposed the enforcement of hate speech rules on at least four different pages or groups linked to the BJP. The WSJ has also released internal message findings that “detail (Das) support” for the BJP and “look down on its main rival.”
El Chaupal is a “news and media website” on Facebook, which has spent 5 lakh rupees on political ads since 2018 and is followed by 10 million accounts. OpIndia’s official page is followed by 2 lakh of accounts and has spent almost Rs 90,000 on political ads from March to June 2019. “PMO India: Report Card” has spent almost Rs 1 lakh on ads and has 2 million followers.
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