Facebook has received similar letters recently from Congress and the BJP.
New Delhi:
Facebook has received the third letter in two weeks accusing it of political bias. In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the Trinamool Congress said that the accounts and posts were blocked by the social media giant and pointed to a “link” between Facebook and the BJP ahead of elections in West Bengal next year.
The Trinamool Congress, which governs Bengal, claimed that there was sufficient evidence in the public domain to substantiate its accusation.
Facebook has received similar letters recently from Congress and the BJP. Today, Facebook officials are due to appear before a panel of parliamentarians led by Shashi Tharoor from Congress to answer questions about alleged political biases based on US media reports.
Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien, who has written to Facebook, is referring to an earlier meeting where he had reportedly raised these concerns.
“We, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), India’s second-largest opposition party, have had serious concerns about the role of Facebook during the 2014 and 2019 general elections in India,” O’Brien wrote in the letter. , according to PTI. “With elections in the Indian state of West Bengal only a few months away, the recent blocking of your company’s Facebook pages and accounts in Bengal also points to the link between Facebook and the BJP. There is now enough material on the domain public, including internal memoranda from Facebook’s top management, to corroborate bias, “he wrote.
In another letter sent to Facebook on August 31, O’Brien noted “the removal of hundreds of pages and accounts of Trinamool Congressional supporters on Facebook and WhatsApp for violations of community standards.” He said numerous Facebook and WhatsApp accounts were banned in the run-up to the founding day of his party’s youth wing on August 28.
Yesterday, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, alleged that employees of the social media giant “are officially abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior cabinet ministers.”
There have been “multiple cases recently in which Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole objective is to destroy social order, recruit people and rally them for violence. However, we have not yet seen any meaningful action against such elements. Action also stopped by the same vested interest groups that have an incentive to stoke political violence and instability in India? “- Wrote Mr Prasad.
The IT minister also alleged that he had been told that in the run-up to the 2019 elections, “there was a concerted effort by the administration of Facebook India to not only remove pages or substantially reduce their reach, but also to offer no recourse. or right of appeal “. to those affected who support the ideology of the center-right. “
Prasad’s letter came after Congress wrote to Facebook about US media reports suggesting Facebook’s bias in dealing with posts from BJP members and the right wing. A report published in the Wall Street Journal said the social media site did not apply hate speech rules to members of the ruling party. In a second report, WSJ alleged that Ankhi Das, head of public policy at Facebook India, “made internal posts for several years” detailing her support for the ruling BJP and disparaging its main rival, Congress.
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