A parliamentary panel led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor may summon executives from Facebook over a news report that said the social media company issued favourable treatment to BJP leaders ahead of the 2019 general election in which the party received a thumping majority.
The Indian Express reported, citing sources, that the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology secretariat would write to Facebook as early as Monday, and may summon its executives as well.
The WSJ report, by Newley Purnell and Jeff Horwitz, said that Ankhi Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia, told employees that punishing hate speech by BJP politicians would damage the company’s “business prospects” in India.
The leaders cited in the report include Telangana MLA T. Raja Singh and MP and former Union minister Anantkumar Hegde.
Tharoor had tweeted on Sunday that the panel “would certainly wish to hear from Facebook” about these reports. The Thiruvananthapuram MP was responding to a tweet from Congress leader Rahul Gandhi that alleged that the BJP and RSS “control Facebook & Whatsapp” in India.
BJP & RSS control Facebook & Whatsapp in India.
They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate.
Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook. pic.twitter.com/Y29uCQjSRP
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 16, 2020
The report set off a slugfest among political circles, with IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad—uncharitably, for a Union minister—calling Gandhi a loser who could not “influence people even in their own party”.
The Congress has been calling for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) to investigate the allegations, including that Das intervened to prevent Facebook from announcing it took down fake news related to the BJP, when it did so for the Congress days before voting began for the election.
The Indian Express report, however, indicated that everyone in the Congress wasn’t happy with the demand for a JPC probe, considering its own MP heads the IT panel. In the case of a JPC, the BJP can appoint the chairperson.
