Facebook assuages Congress on 'partisanship' charge, assures 'free & safe expression'

On Thursday, Facebook Public Policy Director Neil Potts gave an assurance to Congress party that social media platform is "n-partisan". Potts was responding to Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal's letter dated August 18 wherein latter alleged that Facebook India was favouring BJP. Facebook Public Policy Director recalled that he h recently shared his company's Community Standards and steps taken during COVID-19 to Venuopal as well as or Congress leers.

Assuring that his company's Community Standards prohibits attacks against people based on religion, caste, ethnicity, and national origin, Potts stressed that Facebook will continue to remove hateful content by public figures in India. Moreover, he explained that decisions are t me by one person but are inclusive of different views from multiple teams. Thanking Congress party for its recommendations, he reiterated Facebook's commitment to maintain highest level of integrity and foster an environment of free and safe expression. 

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It is pertinent to te that Congress party has alrey written two letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeking action against its India team and an independent probe into its functioning. In his letter, Venugopal recommended that Facebook should make public all instances of hate speech allowed on platform since 2014. Besides this, Congress has also demanded a Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into this issue.  

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IT Minister complains to Facebook

In an interesting development on Tuesday, Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Pras wrote to Zuckerberg condemning its alleged interference in Indian political process. He opined 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.

Emphasising that Facebook should be 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, Pras contended that Facebook h emerged as latest tool to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances. Furrmore,  Union IT Minister claimed that re is an internal power struggle within Zuckerberg's company to achieve ideological hegemony. 

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