Congress Party tells Facebook to investigate bias

The Congress Party wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing Facebook India of "interfering" with the country's electoral democracy and demanded a time-bound high-level inquiry into the conduct of Facebook India leadership team, and their operations.

New Delhi: Congress' General Secretary in-charge, KC Venugopal wrote a letter to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, on Tuesday, demanding a high-level inquiry over the matter of alleged biasness of the social media platform towards ruling Bhartiya Janta Party.

Political slugfest over Facebook begins after a report published on Friday, by Wall Street Journal, titled "Facebook's Hate-Speech Rules Collide with Indian Politics", stated that Facebook's top public policy executive in India, refused to apply company's rules over hate speech to some BJP leaders as it "would damage the company's business prospects in the country".

Venugopal wrote in his letter, "This is damning and serious allegation of Facebook India's interference in India's electoral democracy. Further the article quotes a Facebook Inc spokesman, Mr. Andy Stone, acknowledging the implicit biases of Facebook India's leadership.

" The Congress leader also called the action of Facebook India by deleting the hate speech posts, after investigative inquiries by Wall Street Journal, as "a clear admission of guilt."

He stated, "As India's oldest political party that fought for the Nation's freedom and established India's electoral democracy through Universal adult franchise, it is deeply disturbing to know that your company may be a willing participant in throating the very rights and values that our founding leaders sacrificed their lives for."

Congress also noted that India is one of the biggest markets in terms of users for Facebook and WhatsApp and therefore Expectations of social and moral responsibility are even higher in Nations like India. In a number of suggestions for a "thorough" and "impartial" inquiry into the matter, Venugopal asserted, "Set-up high-level inquiry by Facebook headquarters into the Facebook India leadership team and their operations and submit a report to the board of Facebook Inc. within a reasonable period of time such as one or two months. This report should also be made public."

He further added, "Public and make transparent all instances of hate speech posts since 2014 that were allowed on the platform. The WSJ article mentions hate speech of at least 3 politicians that were willfully permitted by Facebook India. On a closer perusal, you will find thousands of such insidious posts."

"Until the completion of internal investigation and submission of report, please consider to lead Facebook India operations by a new team or as to not influence the investigation," Venugopal suggested. Congress has also demanded of parliamentary committee probe in India over Facebook's biasness.

Other political parties have also expressed apprehension over the matter. Shashi Tharoor, head of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology, has ensured that he'll look into the matter and the committee will also seek the views of Facebook on these allegations. However, a day before, Facebook also reacted over the matter, saying that it prohibits hate speech and content and informed these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi also tweeted, "We cannot allow any manipulation of our hard-earned democracy, fake news and hate speech. As exposed by WSJ, Facebook’s involvement in peddling fake and hate news needs to be questioned by all Indians."

On Sunday, he even demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe on Facebook.