EU IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sent a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday calling for “Country-specific Community Guidelines” that “will respect social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity. of India “.
Prasad wrote to Zuckerberg expressing serious concerns that employees of the social media company are officially abusing the Prime Minister and Cabinet Ministers of India while still working at Facebook India and managing important positions.
“It is doubly problematic when people bias becomes inherent platform bias. And it is unacceptable when people’s political biases affect the freedom of expression of millions of people, “said Prasad.
In a vigorously worded letter, Prasad also told the social media giant that people who work in any organization may have their individual likes or dislikes, but that must not have any bearing on the organization’s public policies. “It appears from credible media reports that the Facebook India team, from the Managing Director of India to other senior officials, is dominated by people belonging to particular political beliefs,” he said.
The development comes shortly after a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report that put Facebook in the line of fire. The report alleged that the company’s chief of policy, Ankhi Das, had asked the moderators to refrain from dropping the positions of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician T. Raja Singh, even after it was discovered that they were dangerous and labeled as hate speech. Das told the company it would hurt its interests in India if the positions were withdrawn.
Following the news report, former Congress Speaker Rahul Gandhi criticized Facebook for allegedly favoring the BJP and alleged that the American company was controlled by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological father of the BJP, in India.
In the letter, Prasad, however, said that Facebook does not support center-right ideology. “I have been informed that in the run-up to the 2019 general election in India, 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 any remedies or rights to appeal to the affected people who are supports the center-right ideology, “he said.
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