A team of Facebook representatives on Wednesday claimed the social media platform is neutral towards all political parties when it deposed before the parliamentary standing committee on information technology for allegedly allowing display of hate content on its site.
The Shashi Tharoor-led panel questioned the Facebook team, led by its India head Ajith Mohan, for more than two hours.
Some opposition MPs cited IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad’s letter to Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg and demanded that the government should bring a bill to regulate social media sites, people aware of the development said.
BJP members asked Mohan about his relations with Congress and accused Facebook of having employees with left leaning, the sources said.
Mohan clarified that he was never a member of Congress and as a professional, his services are available to all parties. He maintained that he had worked for a multinational company on a project involving suggestions to the Kerala government on urban development.
Opposition members posed questions on several incidents where hate speech and objectionable videos were posted on Facebook and are still there despite concerns and requests posed by people.
They cited video of flogging of Dalits in Una, and alleged hate speech by BJP’s Telangana MLA T Raja Singh, BJP West Bengal MP Arjun Singh, and Bajrang Dal in Delhi during the recent riots among others. Some members accused Facebook of removing videos of anti-CAA protests to favour the government.
Members of the committee were not convinced with Facebook’s reply that some of the objectionable content has been taken down, arguing that in many cases the damage is already done or removing content may lead to loss of evidence. Instead, the company should cooperate in taking appropriate legal action, they said.
In reply to a question, Facebook said it has outsourced fact-checking to a third party and takes a call based on their input, sources said. Mohan also informed the committee that some of the “community standards” of his company are in conflict with Indian laws.
Facebook responded to some questions and has sought time to answer the remaining queries later.
The committee has decided to call Facebook representatives again. The term of this committee will end on September 12 and this was its last meeting. The next committee will continue the process, sources said.
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