'Cannot allow manipulation of our hard-earned democracy': Rahul Gandhi on Facebook row

Highlighting Congress' letter to Facebook, former Party President Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, tweeted that manipulation of 'our hard-earned democracy' should not be allowed. Gandhi's remarks came in reference to the Wall Street Journal's report alleging Facebook's interference in Indian electoral processes. The Congress MP from Wayanad tweeted that the social media giant's involvement in allegedly peddling fake and hate news 'needs to be questioned' by all Indians.

Congress writes to Zuckerberg

Earlier in the day, AICC general secretary KC Venugopal wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg demanding a probe into the conduct of the social media platform and their operations following the controversy over a western media report claiming that Facebook did not apply its 'hate speech rules' on BJP leaders. In his letter, Venugopal suggested setting up a high-level inquiry into Facebook India leadership team and submit a report to Facebook Inc. within a reasonable period of time. 

READ | FIR Filed Against Facebook India's Director Ankhi Das For ‘hurting Religious Sentiments’

The Congress leader also demanded to publish and make transparent all instances of hate speech posts since 2014 that were allowed on the platform. "The article mentions of at least three other politicians that were wilfully permitted by Facebook India. On a closer perusal, you will find thousands of such insidious posts", he said in the letter.

Meanwhile, soon after the report by WSJ, Congress has also hinted at a Parliamentary probe into the issue. Highlighting similarity of the issue with the alleged Russian interference in US elections, Congress' Manish Tewari had urged the Standing Committee on IT headed by Shashi Tharoor to take up the issue. 

READ | Congress Hints At Parliamentary Probe Into Facebook's 'hate-speech Policy' For BJP

WSJ's report

The American newspaper, Wall Street Journal has claimed that BJP's Telangana MLA T Raja Singh had often made communal and incendiary speeches that were posted on Facebook, clashing with the company's hate speech rules. Despite the fact that the posts allegedly violated Facebook's hate-speech rules and qualified as dangerous, it refrained from punishing the violations. The report mentioned Facebook India's top public-policy Executive Ankhi Das who has claimed that punishing violations by BJP would 'damage the company's business prospects in India'. Apart from Singh, three other BJP leaders or Hindutva groups were allegedly flagged by Facebook for hate-speech. 

READ | Facebook Issues Carefully Worded Statement Amid BJP-Congress War On Its Hate-speech policy

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