BJP MP Nishikant Dubey moves privilege motion against Rahul Gandhi over Facebook row

As the war-of-words between Congress and BJP escalates over Facebook, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey moved a notice for breach of privilege against Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor. He said that Rahul Gandhi attempted to spread fake news and hatred. 

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

"For the first time have I seen that a Chairman of a Parliamentary Committee has moved privilege against its own fellow member. Even after my extensive knowledge on Parliamentary rules, ethics, and conventions I still feel that the matter should be discussed in the Parliament," Dubey said. 

A breach of privilege motion can be moved by members against others for violating privileges granted as parliamentarians and if passed against a lawmaker, they result in action that can go up to expulsion from the house.

READ | Sena drags Sushant's death case in Cong-BJP exchange over Facebook's 'hate-speech policy'

Rahul Gandhi lashes out at BJP

Earlier on Monday, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleged that 'BJP & RSS controlled Facebook' while opining on a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on hate-speech on Facebook. He claimed that the 'American media had finally come out with the truth about Facebook'. Gandhi, who has been continually critical of the Modi government alleged that the BJP spread fake news and hatred through Facebook to influence the electorate. Facebook has currently invested a whopping $5.7 billion in the Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio platforms, raking a 9.9 per cent stake in the company.

READ | Congress writes to Zuckerberg; wants Facebook India probed for alleged 'hate speech' bias

What does WSJ report claim?

The 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 in spite of the posts allegedly violating Facebook's hate-speech rules and qualifying as dangerous, Facebook India's top public-policy executive Ankhi Das had 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. 

The report further points out that Facebook has faced issues to launch its telecommunications service - Free Basics in 2016 from the Modi government, as it violated net neutrality. The report further stated 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. While Facebook publically disclosed the deletion of the Congress-linked accounts, it allegedly did not disclose the removal of the BJP-linked posts.

READ | FIR filed against Facebook India's Director Ankhi Das for ‘hurting religious sentiments’