Congress seeks JPC probe into Facebook’s alleged role in ‘influencing’ India’s elections

New Delhi, October 25

The Congress on Monday accused Facebook of “influencing” India’s elections and “undermining” democracy and demanded a joint parliamentary committee probe into it.

“Facebook has reduced itself to a Fakebook,” Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said while raising the purported leaked internal reports of the social media giant on not initiating action against hate speech posts on its platform in India.

The Congress leader also alleged that Facebook was acting as an ally of the ruling BJP and pushing its agenda.

He referred to research documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen, who has worked at Facebook, and alleged that it took no decisive action against the perpetrators of such hate posts in Hindi and Bengali.

A Facebook company spokesperson here said it is improving enforcement.

“We’ve invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali. As a result, we’ve reduced the amount of hate speech that people see by half this year. “Today, it’s down to 0.05 percent. Hate speech against marginalised groups, including Muslims, is on the rise globally. So we are improving enforcement and are committed to updating our policies as hate speech evolves online,” the spokesperson said.

Khera alleged that Facebook’s internal reports identified fake accounts with over a million impressions, yet it did nothing about it.

“We demand a JPC probe to look into the role of Facebook in influencing our elections,” he told reporters.

He alleged that Facebook was trying to “compromise and undermine our democracy in trying to shape through fake posts the opinions of people”.

He alleged that BJP workers and those of its affiliates have infiltrated into the structure and functioning of Facebook.

“What right does Facebook have to push a particular ideology through fake posts, pictures and a narrative.

“It is shocking how only 0.2 percent of hate speech is removed by Facebook, which despite making the most money from India, does not have the mechanism to filter posts in Hindi or Bengali,” he said.

Khera said just 9 per cent of users in India are in English and yet they do not have systems to filter the posts of regional languages.

Alleging that the role of Facebook during Delhi riots and West Bengal elections has been under suspicion, he said “The role of Facebook can no longer be dismissed as an error of omission as they are knowingly furthering the agenda of the ruling party and its ideology which is hate-filled, bigotry and dividing society.”                

“Why should we not accuse Facebook of interfering in our elections by influencing the voting behaviour of its consumers. This is serious election fraud and this is serious interference in our elections by a foreign company,” he alleged.

“Why is Facebook quiet on these accusations which have come from within it. Why is the government silent on this, just because it suits their agenda and Facebook has become a tool in the hands of the BJP and its affiliates,” he asked.

Khera alleged that in the wake of an expose by its own former employee, there are many questions that Facebook, as well as the government, need to answer.

“Despite knowing all of this, why hasn’t Facebook designated RSS and Bajrang Dal as ‘dangerous organisations’ based on its own internal reports?

“While the Government of India had been extremely proactive against Twitter citing Social Media safety compliance, why are they not uttering a word now,” he asked.

He also alleged that internal reports and recommendations of Facebook’s security team went against the recommendations of Facebook’s safety team, insofar as they prioritised commercial interests over the safety of Indian citizens, and yet no action has been taken by the Government.

“Doesn’t this clearly implicate the presence of a ‘quid pro quo’,” he asked.

Internal documents at Facebook show “a struggle with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence” in India, the company’s biggest market, with researchers at the social media giant pointing out that there are groups and pages “replete with inflammatory and misleading anti-Muslim content” on its platform, US media reports have said. PTI

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