BackFacebook refutes hate speech allegation
FB said it enforces its policies on hate speech across all its platforms, irrespective of anyone’s political position
PremiumNEW DELHI : Reacting to the controversy over favouring the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India, Facebook on Monday refuted allegations of ignoring hate speech by ruling party leaders and said the company enforces the guidelines across its platforms, including social messaging app WhatsApp, irrespective of anyone’s political affiliation. The statement was first reported by ANI news agency on its Twitter channel.
“We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position/party affiliation. We’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," it said on Monday.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) had reported on 14 August that Facebook’s policy chief for India, Ankhi Das, had opposed applying the company’s hate speech policies to BJP leader T. Raja Singh’s posts on Rohingya Muslims.
The report said Facebook neither took down Singh’s post despite people “charged with policing the platform" concluded that it violated its policies, nor did it ban Singh, which would also be in conformity with its guidelines. The report added that this was part of a “broader pattern for favouritism" towards the BJP by Facebook.
A Facebook spokesperson, Andy Stone, told the WSJ that Das had raised concerns about the political fallout from designating Singh as a “dangerous individual", which is what Facebook does for repeat offenders who post content inciting violence. Stone added that Facebook was “still considering" whether the ban was warranted.
Following the news report, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi criticized Facebook for allegedly favouring the BJP, and alleged that the American firm was controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of BJP, in India. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, too, took to Twitter, demanding that a parliamentary standing committee on information technology would “certainly wish to hear" from Facebook. Some other Congress leaders have also demanded the formation of a joint parliamentary committee to look into the allegations.
Meanwhile, Das lodged a written complaint with Delhi Police’s cyber cell, alleging that she had received “violent threats" following WSJ’s report, and demanded immediate arrest of those mentioned in the complaint.
In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: “We take the safety and security of our employees seriously...However, we do not comment on individual employee matters."
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