BackFormer Facebook employee deposes before Delhi assemblies committee
He told the committee that for the recruitment process of the top heads of the company, persons having cordial government relations or having special political affiliations preferred
PremiumFormer Facebook employee Mark S. Luckie deposed before Delhi assemblies committee on peace and harmony which is looking into complaints on the “role or complicity of Facebook officials in the Delhi riots" in February. Luckie gave insights on the entire organisational structure of Facebook globally as well as regionally. He said that top managerial posts at Facebook are given to people who have strong governmental associations or political affiliations.
The meeting on Thursday comes after Facebook officials declined to depose before the committee, which is looking into the social media platform’s alleged inaction to contain harmful content.
“Luckie affirmed that there has been a repeated interference by the top officials of the Facebook teams including their policy heads at the instance of the political parties upon the content moderation teams which has caused eventual compromise in the execution of their own community standards. He has affirmed that Facebook has been creating policies with respect to efficient content moderation which are not consistent or even transparent and are developed in a manner that it suits Facebook and its business model rather than the persons who have been victimised by its inefficient policies," a statement by the committee said.
He told the committee that the recruitment process of the top heads of the company for posts like that of Public Policy Head, persons having cordial government relations or having special political affiliations and who have strong hold on lobbying within the government are preferred.
The committee, chaired by Raghav Chadha has so far met experts and journalists on the issue. In September, the panel had summoned Facebook India vice president and managing director Ajit Mohan for deposition. Facebook, however, declined the committee’s request on the grounds of the issue being heard by the central parliamentary committee.
The social media platform has faced criticism over allegations that it favours the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in India. According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Ankhi Das, Facebook India’s director for public policy, had opposed the removal of content from the ruling party leaders although the posts qualified as hate speech. Das has since resigned from the position.
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