Facebook India Vice President and CEO Ajit Mohan has moved to the Supreme Court (file)
New Delhi:
Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan has moved the Supreme Court against a notice from the Delhi Assembly’s “Peace and Harmony” committee about the alleged complicity of the social media platform in the violence that hit the capital. national in February.
A three-member bench of the high court, composed of judges SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari, will hear the guilty plea tomorrow via video conference.
Mr. Mohan will be represented by former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
In his petition, the head of Facebook India said that the Delhi Assembly committee could not force him to appear before it as the same issue was already before a parliamentary panel.
On Sunday, the committee had sent a new and “final” subpoena to Facebook India, to appear on charges of “deliberate inaction by (the) social media platform to enforce the rules of hate speech.”
They had asked Mr. Mohan to appear tomorrow.
This was days after Facebook India executives, including Ajit Mohan, rejected an earlier subpoena.
In a written response, Facebook India said that they had already appeared before a parliamentary panel on this issue and therefore the Delhi Assembly should withdraw their convocation.
Mohan, in his petition, also noted that the Delhi Police, which last week produced a controversial 17,000-page charge sheet relating to the violence, informed the center and not the Delhi AAP.
Houses were burned, vehicles were vandalized and people were lynched during the Delhi violence.
He also questioned the AAP, declaring that Facebook was “prima facie guilty” and asking for a supplemental charge sheet. Mohan said the party could not make such statements because it was not a court of law.
The “Peace and Harmony” committee was created by the Delhi Assembly (where the ruling AAP has 62 out of 70 seats) after riots over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds.
The committee’s decision to convene Facebook India was due to complaints of “willful and intentional inaction to contain hateful content” in the country.
This was after US publication reports cited interviews with anonymous insiders who claimed that hate speech rules did not apply in the case of incendiary posts by BJP leaders and right-wing activists.
A report, from TIME magazine, referred to a video by BJP leader Kapil Mishra, a video that was among several of the BJP leaders played by the Delhi High Court at their hearing on the matter.
In response, Facebook has insisted that it applies the rules of hate speech uniformly and without any regard for political parties that may be involved.
The social media giant has already met with a parliamentary panel, led by Congressman Shashi Tharoor, once this month and is due to appear before that panel again.
The US media reports sparked a political row between the BJP and Congress, which has written letters to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
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