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

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

He also dared Union government to agree to a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into this matter. It is pertinent to te that Congress party has already written two letters to 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 Facebook CEO, Prasad condemned  interference in Indian political process. He alleged that re was a concerted attempt by Facebook India manment to delete ps or substantially reduce reach of people supportive of right-of-centre ideology. Claiming that affected persons did get a right of appeal, he attributed this to dominant political belief of individuals working in 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 decision-making apparatus of social media platforms. Pointing out that Facebook India employees were abusing PM and or Cabinet Ministers, Prasad contended that Facebook had emerged as latest tool to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances. Additionally,  Union IT Minister claimed that re is an internal power struggle within Zuckerberg's company to achieve ideological hegemony. 

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

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

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