Facebook showed up at man's doorstep for Aadhaar verification over political post: Report

According to reports, a man in Delhi claims that a Facebook representative showed up at his doorstep for physical Aadhaar verification over a political post ahead of 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The man described that a Facebook representative reached his house in civil clothes and with a proper Facebook identity. 

Apparently, Facebook has refuted the claims highlighted in several news reports over the last couple of days and have maintained that no such measures are currently in place in the country. This happens to be the first of its kind incident reported up until now and we don’t even know for sure whether it was real or someone was only pulling the prank. But either way, this could be a very serious matter.

"He came in civil clothes with a proper Facebook identity. He asked for my Aadhaar Card to verify my credentials for writing a mere post on the social networking platform with political content," news reports quoted the man narrating his alleged experience.

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Facebook recently said they are blocking and removing close to a million abusive accounts per day with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning tools.

Legally, Facebook just can’t simply show up at a user’s house asking for documents over any kind of content posted by the users. Under the Information Technology Act 2000, Facebook is not authorised to conduct such physical verification. Only police can conduct physical verification, which is often the case when it comes to passport verification.

Experts believe that if users post something containing a sensitive material or extreme content violating its guidelines, Facebook can remove the post or inform the concerned law enforcement authorities if some necessary action needs to be taken against the user.

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Recently, a U.K. woman named Laleh Shahravesh was arrested in Dubai for allegedly insulting her ex-husband’s new wife on Facebook. Shahravesh was arrested at Dubai Airport after authorities received a complaint about Facebook posts that she allegedly made in 2016 calling her ex’s new wife a “horse.”

(With agency inputs)