'Ugly nexus exposed': Congress reiterates 'BJP-Facebook link' claim, demands JPC probe

On Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that the purported "ugly nexus" between BJP and Facebook has been exposed. He was reacting to a letter written by Union Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. According to Surjewala, the National Democratic Alliance government had come to the rescue of the "prejudiced offenders" of Facebook India. 

He also dared the Union government to agree to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into this matter. It is pertinent to note that the Congress party has already written two letters to the Facebook CEO seeking action against its India team and an independent probe into its functioning. Referring to international media articles, Congress accused Facebook India's leadership of favouring BJP consistently and being complicit in propagating hate speech. 

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Prasad alleges interference of Facebook

In his letter to the Facebook CEO, Prasad condemned the interference in the Indian political process. He alleged that there was a concerted attempt by the Facebook India management to delete pages or substantially reduce the reach of people supportive of the right-of-centre ideology. Claiming that the affected persons did get a right of appeal, he attributed this to the dominant political belief of individuals working in the Facebook India team.

Stressing that Facebook is visibly seen to be fair and neutral, he lamented that people having a certain political belief are trying to discredit India's democratic process by dominating the decision-making apparatus of social media platforms. Pointing out that Facebook India employees were abusing the PM and other Cabinet Ministers, Prasad contended that Facebook had emerged as the latest tool to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances. Additionally, the Union IT Minister claimed that there is an internal power struggle within Zuckerberg's company to achieve ideological hegemony. 

Read: Amid Political Row, Facebook Says Platform Non-partisan, Will Remove Content That Violate Standards

On this occasion, the senior BJP leader also found fault with Facebook's policy of outsourcing fact-checking to third-party fact-checkers. He highlighted that these fact-checkers themselves harbour political biases and have failed to prevent the platform from being used to spread misinformation about COVID-19. Maintaining that a transnational digital platform with a large user base cannot remain immune to local sensitivities, Prasad called upon Facebook to put in place country-specific community guidelines. Thereafter, the Union IT Minister requested Zuckerberg to ensure that his company is not hijacked by a vested lobby that abhors free speech and tries to enforce one world view. 

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