'Facebook reduced to fakebook', Congress demands JPC probe in fake news

Congress party, on Monday, demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the spread of fake news alleging that the social media platform has been continuously showing "favouritism" towards the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party and even called it "fakebook".

New Delhi: Congress party, on Monday, demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe into the spread of fake news alleging that the social media platform has been continuously showing "favouritism" towards the ruling Bhartiya Janta Party and even called it "fakebook".

While speaking to the media, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said, "Facebook's tryst with bias favouring their all weather ally, the BJP is nothing new. Facebook's safety team earlier in 2020 had concluded that the Bajrang Dal supported violence against minorities across the country. Despite knowing all of this, why hasn't Facebook designated RSS and Bajrang Dal as 'dangerous organizations' based on its own internal reports?"

He also mentioned the facts released by whistle-blower Frances Haugen through leaked documents, which claimed that Facebook isn't equipped to filter "hate speech" especially in Hindi and Bengali.

"With about 370 million users of the Social media platform in India, in terms of use and base India is Facebooks largest Market the league suggested that an internal assessment by Facebook stated that only 0.2% of reported hate speech was being taken down, which shows that Facebook was and continues to be having damningly acute awareness about content against a particular section of Indian society and has consciously chosen not to act against it," Khera alleged.

Congress also questioned that why the Government of India is being silent while it was being pro-active against Twitter citing social media safety compliance.

"The internal reports and recommendations of Facebook's security team went against the recommendations of Facebook's safety team, in so far as they prioritized commercial interests over safety of Indian citizens, and yet no action has been taken by the Government, doesn't this clearly implicate the presence of a quid pro quo?" he asked.

Congress General Secretary incharge KC Venugopal also tweeted over the matter, "Facebook has become a tool for BJP to spread misinformation and hate speech. Millions of Indians are active on the platform and are regularly being subjected to hateful content. Our democracy is being influenced by a foreign company."

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