Facebook has to keep its rules lenient to allow BJP leader Hate speech to save its business in India, Report claims

Is Facebook being soft on the hate speech of BJP leaders? Are the leaders of the ruling party not acted on behalf of the social site for fear of business being affected? The claims made in a media report have sparked a new controversy. Meanwhile, the Congress has said that the party had also raised these issues during a meeting with senior officials of the social media company.   

In an article published in the American newspaper ‘The Wall Street Journal’, on the basis of an interview with anonymous Facebook officials, claims have not been taken on the posts with hate speech of BJP leaders. The report said that the company’s senior India policy executive Ankhi Das interrupted the internal review process of the post made by BJP MLA T Raja Singh in Telangana against the Muslim community.  

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The report said that Das told the employees that the business interests of the company in the country could be harmed by action on the leaders of Modi’s party. Facebook has denied these allegations and said that there is ongoing review on Singh’s action. Das refused to comment. 

A senior member of the Congress media team, on condition of anonymity, said, “We had met Ankhi Das on the issue and expressed their concerns.” Congress spokesman Pawan Kheda said, “This on Facebook The disclosure is shocking, as a company like Facebook is expected to run and manage it professionally. New facts are coming out and the close relationship between the important officers of Facebook India and the BJP is exposed. There is a need to protect democracy from such unholy collusion. ” 

Facebook has said that its policies on such issues are fair. Reacting to the report, a Facebook spokesperson said, “We stop hate speech and violence inciting materials.” We implement these policies worldwide without looking at anyone’s political and party affiliations. A BJP spokesperson denied comment on the issue. A party official, on the condition of anonymity, said that the BJP did not agree with Singh’s views and disassociated himself from such statements. 

Significantly, India is one of the largest markets of Facebook and by this June it is estimated to have 350 million users in the country. Instagram and WhatsApp also have crores of customers in India. Pressure is mounting on media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as concerns are constantly being expressed that not enough steps are being taken to stop fake news and hate speech.