Facebook’s vice president in India Ajit Mohan resisted attempts by the Delhi assembly to convene him
New Delhi:
The Delhi assembly peace committee that is investigating an alleged misapplication of Facebook’s anti-hate speech rules during the February riots in the national capital has postponed its meeting after telling the Supreme Court it will not take action coercive actions against the top executive of the social media giant. In India.
The Supreme Court also issued a notice to the Delhi assembly secretary and others in a statement by Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan, who asked the high court to prevent the Delhi assembly from convening it. The peace committee of the Delhi assembly was to meet today.
Apart from the secretary of the Delhi assembly, the notification from the Supreme Court has been sent to the center, the general secretary of Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha and the Delhi police.
“The subpoena is a blatant violation of my fundamental rights. I am not a public servant, whose declaration is required. I am an American company,” attorney Harish Salve, representative of the head of Facebook India, told the Supreme Court.
Lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who appeared for the peace committee of the Delhi assembly, replied: “The Delhi assembly does not intend any coercive steps against Facebook.” However, the committee has the power to carry out an investigation, as the matter is not about police surveillance or law and order, Singhvi said.
The Supreme Court will hear the matter on October 15.
Facebook is embroiled in a massive controversy in India over allegations that it failed to apply hate speech rules to the incendiary content of some leaders on its platforms. The Mark Zuckerberg firm has had to go through difficult times in several other nations with similar accusations. As more and more political parties start placing ads that make big money for Facebook, the internet giant is faced with questions about moderating content and enforcing hate speech rules.
The Delhi assembly peace committee is examining allegations about whether inflammatory content on Facebook caused or increased the severity of the riots that broke out in late February in northeast Delhi after weeks of simmering protests against the Act Citizenship (Amendment) or CAA. More than 50 died and hundreds were injured in the violence.
A Wall Street Journal report had alleged that Facebook deliberately ignored inflammatory content from members of the ruling BJP and right-wing groups even after Zuckerberg pointed out the problem internally. Citing unidentified Facebook insider information, the report said a senior Facebook policy executive in India, Ankhi Das, had refused to ban a BJP MLA from Telangana despite his divisive posts.
The permanent parliamentary committee on information technology, headed by Congressman Shashi Tharoor, already heard from Facebook representatives on September 2.
Facebook, which has 33 million users in India and considers the county among its largest markets, has said that it is an “open, transparent and non-partisan platform” where people can freely express themselves.
“Many questions have been raised specifically about the enforcement of our policies on hate speech. There is no place for hate speech on our platform. We have an unbiased approach to handling content and we strictly abide by our Community Guidelines. We enforce these policies globally regardless of political position, party affiliation, or anyone’s religious and cultural beliefs, “Ajit Mohan said in a company blog post on August 21.
.
