On Wednesday, Congress called on Facebook to demonstrate its neutrality with a profound overhaul of its business processes, and also outlined steps taken to curb the “spread of false, polarizing and hateful content” on its platform.
He welcomed the change in Facebook India’s leadership team after the resignation of its chief of policy, Ankhi Das, but added that the matter will not be resolved simply by changing one person.
In August, Congress wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and called for an investigation into a report that suggested the social media company was biased toward the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by censoring hate speech.
In his letter, Congress Secretary-General KC Venugopal asked Zuckerberg to establish a high-level investigation into Facebook India’s leadership team and its operations and suggested the appointment of a new team to lead India’s operations until investigation is completed.
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“As India’s oldest political party that fought for the nation’s freedom and established electoral democracy through the right to vote for adults, it is deeply disturbing to observe that your company can voluntarily participate in frustrating the same rights and values. for which our founding leaders sacrificed their lives. ,” he wrote.
The August Wall Street Journal report suggested that Facebook was being tolerant of hate speech by BJP members and sparked a controversy. The report cited interviews with unidentified people from Facebook and claimed that Das intervened in internal content review processes to stop the ban by BJP’s Telangana legislator Raja Singh, whose posts were directed at the Muslim community. He said Das told staff members that punishing violations by BJP politicians would hurt the company’s business prospects.
On Wednesday, Venugopal said Facebook must guarantee foolproof checks and balances, which cannot be manipulated by the whims and political leanings of an individual.
“It should also outline the measures taken to curb false, polarizing and hateful news or content, spread rampant on its platform, threatening the social harmony of India,” he added.
Congress had also demanded a joint investigation by the parliamentary commission on the whole matter.
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