Friending The Powers That Be

A political slugfest has erupted between the BJP government and Opposition parties over an article in the Wall Street Journal that alleged that the social media giant was favouring the ruling party.

- Kaushik Deka

According to the WSJ story, some Facebook employees had flagged certain posts in March by T. Raja Singh, BJP MP from Telangana, as dangerous violations of the company’s hate-speech rules. But Ankhi Das, the firm’s public policy director for India, south and central Asia, opposed applying the “hate speech rules to Singh” and “three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups…flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence”. Das, the article said, told employees that punishing violations by BJP politicians would damage the company’s business prospects in India. Andy Stone, a Facebook spokesperson, admitted that Das had raised concerns about the political fallout, but added that her opposition wasn’t the sole factor that determined the company’s decision to not take any action.

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