Delhi govt's peace committee to summon Facebook officials over 'inaction on hate speech'

Pulling up social media giant Facebook for inaction to contain hateful content, Delhi Assembly's Peace and Harmony Committee, on Monday said that summons will be issued to concerned officials of Facebook including Ankhi Das. committee's chairman Raghav Chadha stated that committee had received multiple complaints. Incidentally, Delhi had witnessed gruesome riots in February killing 53, after several incendiary speeches were made on CAA protests.

Rahul Gandhi on Facebook's 'hate-speech policy' for BJP: 'Influenced electorate with it'

Delhi committee to summon Facebook's Ankhi Das

Congress hints at Parliamentary probe into Facebook's 'hate-speech policy' for BJP

Congress hints at parliamentary probe

Earlier on Sunday, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor- who heads Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Techlogy, has hinted that social media giant may be pulled up. Taking to Twitter, Rajya Sabha MP Manish Tewari and Derek O'Brien too highlighted same - alleging interference in Indian electoral processes. Meanwhile, Das has filed a complaint against threats recieved to her after report was published by Wall Street journal alleging Facebook's selective practice of applying 'anti-hate speech' rules. BJP, on or hand, has denied any affiliation with Facebook, slamming Congress' allegations.

BJP, 'wider conservative ecosystem' t aligned to Facebook, says Malviya; slams Sonia

What does WSJ report claim?

American newspaper Wall Street Journal claimed that BJP's Telangana MLA T Raja Singh had often made communal and incendiary speeches that were posted on Facebook, clashing with company's hate speech rules. report claims that inspite of posts allegedly violating Facebook's hate-speech rules and qualifying as dangerous, Facebook India's top public-policy executive Ankhi Das had claimed that punishing violations by BJP would 'dam company's business prospects in India'. Apart from Singh, three or BJP leaders or Hindutva groups were allegedly flagged by Facebook for hate-speech.

report furr points out that Facebook has faced issues to launch its telecommunications service - Free Basics in 2016 from Modi government, as it violated net neutrality. report furr stated that while some of Singh's posts were removed by Facebook, social media giant has demoted Singh's account to a n-verified, ufficial account without a blue tick. Similarly WSJ pointed out that Facebook had taken action against BJP's Ananthkumar Hegde's communal posts, but Twitter has suspended his account. 

Facebook issues carefully worded statement amid BJP-Congress war on its hate-speech policy

report states that BJP's Kapil Mishra's incendiary speech ahead of three-day Delhi riots was taken down by Facebook - with founder Mark Zuckerberg stating in an employee townhall that platform would t tolerate such behaviour. Citing preferential treatment by Facebook, WSJ points to removal of thousands of Congress-linked Pakistan military posts and several BJP-linked fake news ps prior to Lok Sabha elections. While Facebook publically disclosed deletion of Congress-linked accounts, it allegedly did t disclose removal of BJP-linked posts. Facebook has currently invested a whopping $5.7 billion in Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio platforms, raking a 9.9% stake in company.