New Delhi: On Saturday, Congress wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the second time in a month, asking what action was being taken in the face of repeated allegations that the global social media giant’s India unit is biased toward the ruler. BJP.
At a press conference, the opposition party also demanded an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into alleged “ties of Facebook employees and the ruling system.”
The congressional letter to Zuckerberg came about an article in Time magazine, which the opposition party said “revealed” more information and “evidence of bias and a quid pro quo relationship” of Facebook India with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
There was no immediate reaction from Facebook or the BJP on the allegations. A report in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month had raised similar allegations, which were strongly rejected by both Facebook and the BJP.
Tagging the Time magazine report, Congressional Leader Rahul Gandhi claimed in a tweet exposing the “WhatsApp-BJP nexus.”
“Used by the Indians 40 Cr, WhatsApp also wants to be used to make payments for which the approval of the Modi government is needed. Therefore, BJP has control over WhatsApp,” he claimed, without giving further details.
The popular WhatsApp messaging app is also owned by Facebook.
In its letter to Zuckerberg, the organization secretary general of Congress, KC Venugopal, referred to its previous letter of August 17 in which the party had asked the US-based company to investigate the allegations made in the article of the Wall Street Journal that the social media platform rejected. to apply hate speech rules to certain BJP politicians.
“We draw your attention to the Time magazine article dated August 27 that reveals more information and evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,” Venugopal said in the new letter. dated August 29. and asked for details of the steps the group was taking.
“We will also carry out legislative and judicial actions in India to ensure that a foreign company cannot continue to cause social discord in our nation in its pursuit of private profit,” he said.
At the party’s press conference, spokesperson Pawan Khera and AICC’s data analytics department head Praveen Chakravarty called for a “full and impartial investigation by a Joint Parliamentary Committee into the endless ties of Facebook employees. and the governing system. “
“The investigation must include how Facebook manipulated the opinion of voters, allowed hate speech and failed to account for fake news, even when it clearly violated its own regulations,” they said in a statement.
“Approvals cannot be granted to WhatsApp for its payment operations until the consultation is completed and the company takes the recommended action,” Khera and Chakravarty said.
They also demanded that the report of the investigation ordered by Facebook into the conduct of their Indian unit be made public.
This story was published from a news agency feed with no changes to the text. Only the title has been changed.
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