Facebook did very little to stop the spread of fake news and hate posts on its platform, Delhi Assembly panel tells the representatives of social media giant
Team Clarion
NEW DELHI – A House panel of the Delhi Assembly on Thursday alleged that during the northeast Delhi riots in February 2020, Facebook did very little to stop the spread of fake news and hate posts on its platform. It also demanded from the social media giant to provide the list of complaints and actions taken on them.
“Provide a detailed report of the content complaint, starting from one month before the Delhi riots to two months after February 2020 and what actions did Facebook take to curb them,” senior representatives of Facebook were told by the Chairman of the Committee on Peace and Harmony, Raghav Chadha, on Thursday.
“It has been observed and emphasised by the Supreme Court also that hate content online impacts the actual life of the masses. The same was witnessed during February riots when unverified, hate contents were shared widely on Facebook. What did Facebook do to control such content?” Chadha further asked.
The committee was constituted after the northeast Delhi riots took place in the month of February 2020 following protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act. Last month, the committee had sent a summon to Facebook to send its senior representative to depose over the northeast Delhi riots before the panel on November 2.
Responding to that Facebook India had sought an extension of 14 days to prepare. The team had also requested the committee to share the questions it intended to ask, “or at least the topics of inquiry in advance” so that Facebook’s representatives are “equipped with relevant information.”
On November 16, Facebook India finally agreed to send its two senior representatives — Shivnath Thukral and GB Anand Bhushan, before the committee on Thursday.
The Delhi Assembly panel in its summon dated October 27 had said: “Since Facebook has lakhs of users in the NCT of Delhi, the committee has decided to hear the views of representative(s) of Facebook India.”
“The committee has observed and is of the opinion that social media has a very important role in curbing the spread of false, provocative and malicious messages, which can fan the violence and disharmony,” the letter added.
On Thursday, the committee also asked the Facebook executives to come up with a clear definition of hate speech keeping in mind the Indian context after the executives said that they follow uniform global standards in defining hate speech.
When the committee asked the executives to give a time frame it uses to take action against hate content, they said the posts are removed the moment they learn that they are inflammatory.
The committee also called the executive to share the guidelines in tackling hate content. To this, they replied they can share what is already in the public domain.
The Facebook executives were also asked to talk about religious diversity of the public policy teams and overall staff strength of the company in India. The executives said that in accordance with the Indian law they do not “differentiate” between people based on “religious affiliations” when they hire and they do not ask such questions as a policy matter.
Last year, the House panel had asked the company to depose before it but Facebook challenged the order in the court arguing that the company was accountable only to the Central government.
Then a former company employee Mark Luckie deposed before the panel where he accused the company of hiring people at top positions who have political connections. He had also said that the riots could have been prevented had Facebook acted on time.
Experts have repeatedly accused Facebook of not doing enough to curb violent hate speech that targets Muslims. Recently, a whistleblower said that the company for its business interest was giving leeway to Hindu nationalists including those associated with BJP to use the platform for spreading hatred and violent content.
– With input from IANS
