New Delhi: Facebook India head Ajit Mohan Wednesday came under fire from both the BJP and opposition members during his deposition before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, but he maintained that the social media giant is “neutral” and does not have any “political bias”, ThePrint has learnt.
A member, who attended the meeting, told ThePrint that while Congress MPs, including panel head Shashi Tharoor, told Mohan that Facebook is biased towards the BJP because the party can spend more, the BJP accused Mohan of having links with the Congress, the Left as well as The Wall Street Journal.
“Mohan denied having any political affiliation or links to any of these parties or organisations. He told the MPs that he had previously worked with McKinsey and was approached by the Kerala planning commission to advise on issues related to urban development,” the member said.
The committee on IT had summoned Facebook representatives to hear their views on safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social or online news media platforms. The meeting was attended by 17 MPs, with BJP members outnumbering the opposition.
The committee’s meeting comes close on the heels of a political row in India over a report by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 14 August, stating that Facebook India had turned a blind eye to hate speech by a BJP leader and three other “Hindu nationalist individuals and groups” to avoid damaging the social media platform’s business prospects in its biggest market.
Alleging bias by Facebook, a BJP MP said that there have been incidents where posts like ‘Jai Shri Ram’ were removed.
“The MP said that this is beyond their comprehension. Posts, which were completely neutral, have been removed,” the member told ThePrint.
With several MPs grilling Mohan over why Facebook allows hate speech posts on its platform, the Facebook India head told the members that the social media platform follows global community standards when it comes to removing hate speech.
“Mohan said that in the second quarter of 2020, Facebook had removed 22.5 million hate speech posts globally, including (in) India,” said a second member who attended the meeting.
Mohan, however, did not respond to the MPs’ suggestion that there should be India-specific standards for hate speech. He also did not respond to the members’ suggestions that Facebook should suo moto remove hate speech posts.
“The Facebook India head told the MPs that whenever there is any specific complaint about a post, they act promptly to take it down,” the second member said.
Mohan also told the members that Facebook allows its employees to have their political beliefs and affiliations but it does not in any way affect their work.
When ThePrint reached a Facebook spokesperson via email, he said: “We thank the Honorable Parliamentary Committee for their time. We remain committed to be an open and transparent platform, and to giving people voice and allowing them to express themselves freely.”
Also read: Ravi Shankar Prasad says Facebook is biased against Right-wing, its employees abuse PM
‘Facebook allows its employees to come together’
A third MP told ThePrint that to a query from BJP MP Tejasvi Surya that there are Muslim groups in Facebook, Mohan told the members that the social media platform allows and encourages different communities to come together, and not just Muslims.
“He told the MPs that there is a desi group, a Hispanic group, a black group, among others, and it’s not religion specific. He said that Facebook allows its employees to come together,” the MP said.
Trinamool Congress MP Mohua Moitra, who is part of the panel, raised the issue of surrogate advertisements on Facebook.
“Moitra said that many times it is not clear, who is spending money on the ads. This results in people who are doing it getting away and not coming under the radar of the Election Commission,” the MP said.
Meeting inconclusive
Congress MP Shaktisinh Gohil demanded that a joint parliamentary committee should look into all the issues and recommend necessary laws to address them, according to the sources.
Another Congress MP highlighted how Facebook has commercial ties with many government ministries and regularly hosts contents of these ministries.
Some members also raised questions about how the fact-checkers of Facebook are politically influenced.
To a question from another MP on whether Facebook outsources fact-checking, the first member quoted Mohan as saying that there are some occasions when fact-checking is given to a third party.
“With Wednesday’s meeting remaining inconclusive, it was decided that Facebook will be summoned again by the IT committee, when it is reconstituted,” the third MP said.
Also read: Facebook, Twitter can’t police on speech violation. Only Indian law can