Amid row, Facebook's Public Policy Director files complaint in Delhi over getting threats

Following up on the massive row over Facebook in India based on the claims of a foreign media publication, Ankhi Das, Facebook's Director for Public Policy, has filed a complaint at Delhi's Cyber Cell Unit naming a number of people for issuing death threats to her through various online posts.

According to sources, the Public Policy Director for India, South and Central Asia has been receiving a flood of abusive comments and threats after a western media outlet claimed that Ankhi Das had allegedly told Facebook that punishing hate-speech violations by BJP on the social networking site would 'damage the company's business prospects in India'.

Read: Facebook Issues Carefully Worded Statement Amid BJP-Congress War On Its Hate-speech policy

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 the company's hate speech rules. The report claims that inspite of the posts allegedly violating Facebook's hate-speech rules and qualifying as dangerous, Facebook was not to keen on flagging them under its hate-speech policy owing to the company's business prospects in India. 

The report added that while some of Singh's posts were removed by Facebook, the social media giant has demoted Singh's account to a non-verified, unofficial account without a blue tick. Citing preferential treatment by Facebook, WSJ points to the removal of thousands of Congress-linked Pakistan military posts and several BJP-linked fake news pages prior to the Lok Sabha elections. 

The report further points out that Facebook has faced issues with the launch of its telecommunications service - Free Basics in 2016 from the Modi government, as it violated net neutrality.

Read: Rahul Gandhi On Facebook's 'hate-speech Policy' For BJP: 'Influenced Electorate With It'

'BJP & RSS control Facebook & WhatsApp': Rahul

Shortly after the WSJ report surfaced, leader of opposition and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and RSS of spreading "fake news" using Facebook and WhatsApp to influence the electorate. This triggered a sharp counter-attack from Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad who reminded the opposition party of the Cambridge Analytica data scam right before the elections.

Read: BJP, 'wider Conservative Ecosystem' Not Aligned To Facebook, Says Malviya; Slams Sonia

Read: BJP's Ram Madhav Slams Rahul Gandhi's 'scared To Face Chinese íntentions' Jibe At PM Modi