NEW DELHI: The row over Facebook‘s alleged political inclinations escalated on Tuesday after Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a letter to its CEO Mark Zuckerberg over the “political predisposition” of the social media giant’s India team.
The letter came after the opposition Congress attacked the Centre citing a media report which claimed that Facebook executive Ankhi Das expressed support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 general election results.
In his letter, Prasad said that he has been informed that in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls, there was “concerted effort” by Facebook India to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no right of appeal to affected people who’re supportive of right-of-centre ideology.

Prasad voiced concern over the “political predisposition” of certain Facebook employees and said they have attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet on record.
“It is problematic when Facebook employees are on record ‘abusing’ the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet ministers of India while still working in Facebook India and managing important positions,” he said.

He wrote that the documented cases of “bias and inaction” are seemingly a direct outcome of the dominant political beliefs of individuals in your Facebook India team.
“As a transnational digital platform, Facebook must not only be fair, but also visibly seen to be so, to users of diverse beliefs and ideologies.
“Individuals working in any organisation may have their likes and dislikes but that must not have any bearing on the public policies and performance of the organisation,” he said.
Facebook executive a close supporter of Modi: WSJ Report
“It seems from credible media reports that Facebook India team, right from the India Managing Director to other senior officials, is dominated by people who belong to a particular political belief. After having lost all democratic legitimacy, they are trying to discredit India’s democratic process by dominating the decision-making apparatus of important social media platforms,” the Union minister wrote.
Prasad said that Facebook is the latest tool in their arsenal to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances.
Talking about the recent controversy, he wrote, “The spate of recent anonymous, source-based reports is nothing but an internal power struggle within your company for an ideological hegemony.”

Condemning the interference in India’s political process, he alleged that the “collusion of a group of Facebook employees with international media is giving a free run to vested interests to cast aspersions on the democratic process of our democracy”.
Highlighting that Facebook has been a novel experiment in democratising the expression of people, the BJP leader urged the Facebook CEO that this experiment should not be allowed to be hijacked by a vested lobby that abhors free speech and rejects diversity.
Earlier, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed that international media has “exposed” Facebook and WhatsApp‘s “brazen assault” on India’s democracy and social harmony, as he demanded an investigation into the allegations against them.
With his tweet hitting out at the social media giant, Gandhi tagged a recent article by the Wall Street Journal on how questions were raised by Facebook employees on its India team’s neutrality after an executive posted internal messages allegedly favouring the BJP.

Dismissing the Congress’ allegations, BJP leaders have alleged that Facebook favours other parties, with the ruling party’s IT cell head Amit Malviya alleging a “Congress-Facebook nexus”.
The Congress has written two letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg seeking action against its India team, an independent probe into their functioning and replacing them.
After a major political row erupted over the allegations against it, Facebook had earlier said its social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation.