Employees abused PM, registered ministers while still working at Facebook India, wrote Prasad
Highlight
- Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a letter to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
- Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements, he says
- However, to see some meaningful action against such elements, add
New Delhi:
Amid much controversy over reports alleging that a Facebook executive was biased towards members of the ruling BJP and did not act on inflammatory posts, the government has written to Mark Zuckerberg alleging the opposite.
Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, in a sharp letter to the founder of Facebook, alleged that employees of the social media giant “are abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and high-ranking cabinet ministers” while still working at Facebook India. and they administer important positions.
There have been “multiple cases recently in which Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, recruit people and rally them for violence. However, we have not yet seen any significant action against such elements. Action also held back by the same vested interest groups who have an incentive to stoke political violence and instability in India? ”Mr Prasad wrote.
The IT minister wrote 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 resources or right of appeal to affected persons who support center-right ideology “.
Mr. Prasad cited “credible media reports” that the Facebook India team, from the managing director to other senior officials, “is dominated by people belonging to a particular political belief.”
Without naming Congress, he added that “people of this political predisposition have been overwhelmingly defeated in successive free and fair elections. Having lost all democratic process by dominating the decision-making apparatus of major social media platforms. Facebook is the latest tool in the world. his arsenal to stoke internal divisions and social unrest. “
The minister’s accusations have added to the furious political dispute over articles in the US media suggesting Facebook’s bias in dealing with posts by 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.
Facebook officials have been asked to appear before a parliamentary committee headed by Congressional MP Shashi Tharoor tomorrow to answer questions about these reports.
The minister, in an apparent reference to the reports, wrote that it appeared that “deep-seated vested interests are not satisfied with the reduction of space on one side of the spectrum in India and want to strangle it completely.”
Calling the reports an “internal power struggle” within Facebook, Prasad said: “No other logic can explain how the facts are being manipulated by selective leaks from within your company to try to represent an alternate reality.”
The “interference in India’s political process through gossip, whispering and innuendo is reprehensible. This collusion by Facebook with the international media is giving free rein to malevolent vested interests to slander the democratic process of our great democracy.” wrote.
Prasad urged the CEO to incorporate country-specific community guidelines, calling Facebook a novel experiment to democratize people’s expression “that should not be allowed to be hijacked by a pressure group that abhors freedom of expression and trafficking. to impose a vision of the world. ” “
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