The peace and harmony committee of the Delhi legislature on Saturday summoned a senior Facebook official to depose before the committee on September 15 for alleged inaction to address harmful content on its platform. The committee is also investigating whether “there is any role or complicity of Facebook officials in the Delhi riots” that took place earlier this year.
The committee sent a subpoena to Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director of Facebook India. This comes after the committee initiated proceedings against Facebook last month after receiving complaints.
“The committee, through its chairman Raghav Chadha, has found Facebook prima facie complicit in the February 2020 Delhi riots on the premise of discriminatory material produced by witnesses, as well as his scathing statements before the Committee,” he said. a statement issued by the government. .
“In addition, the committee has also urged the need for an independent investigation leading to the submission of a supplemental charge sheet in ongoing cases related to the Delhi riots on the basis of supporting and corroborative material during the course of the alleged investigation. Various experts, as well as independent witnesses, have been thoroughly examined by the committee in its previous proceedings, “the statement added.
The social media platform has faced criticism over allegations that it favors the government led by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, to further its own business goals in Asia’s third-largest economy. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), Ankhi Das, director of public policy at Facebook India, had opposed the removal of content from the BJP leaders, which he described as hate speech.
The committee has so far called in experts and journalists to comment on the matter.
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