End Facebook interference in India's democracy: Sonia Gandhi

New Delhi, March 16

Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday red flagged the “rising danger of social media abuse to hack Indian democracy” and urged the government to end the interference of social media giants in national electoral politics.

Noting that this issue was beyond partisan politics and was important for all parties irrespective of who was in power, Sonia Gandhi said in the Lok Sabha today that global companies like Facebook and Twitter are being used increasingly to shape political narratives by leaders, political parties and their proxies.

“It has repeatedly come to public notice that global social media companies are not providing a level playing field to all political parties,” she said in Zero Hour in a rare intervention.

Gandhi cited that last year the World Street Journal reported Facebook’s own hate speech rules were being bent to favour politicians of the ruling party and recently, Al Jazeera and Reporters Collective demonstrated how a toxic ecosystem of proxy advertisers posing as news media is flourishing on Facebook “bypassing election laws of the nation breaking Facebook’s own rules and completely suppressing voice of those speaking up against the government.”

“The blatant manner in which social harmony is being disturbed by FB with the connivance of the ruling establishment is dangerous for our democracy. Young and old minds alike are being filled with hate through emotionally charged disinformation and proxy advertising companies like Facebook are aware of this and are profiting from it,” Gandhi said.

She alleged that evidence showed a growing nexus between big corporations, the ruling establishment and global social media giants like Facebook.

When asked by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla what her demand was, Gandhi said, “I urge the government to put an end to the systematic influence and interference of Facebook and other social media giants in the electoral politics of the world’s largest democracy. This is beyond partisan politics. We need to protect our democracy and social harmony regardless of who is in power.”