[ad_1]
NEW DELHI: Amid a raging controversy over political bias and interference on Facebook at the behest of its senior Indian officials, the government on Tuesday wrote a hard-hitting letter to the social media giant’s founder Mark Zuckerberg, accusing employees of the company of “on record abusing” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Cabinet ministers and engaging in “collusion… to cast aspersions on the democratic process of our great democracy”.
The letter, written by telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, accused the company’s senior management of bias and said the platform was “hijacked by a vested lobby that abhors free speech and tries to enforce one worldview and rejects diversity”.
“It seems from credible media reports that the Facebook India team, right from the India managing director to other senior officials, is dominated by people who belong to a particular political belief. People from this political pre-disposition have been overwhelmingly defeated by the people in successive free and fair elections. 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. Facebook is the latest tool in their arsenal to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances,” Prasad wrote.
The letter marks the deepening differences between the government and the American social media giant, which is also facing a CBI inquiry over the Cambridge Analytica data breach episode. Facebook-owned instant messenger WhatsApp has also been under regulatory heat after a series of lynching incidents across the country which were partly blamed on viral and fake messages spread on its platform. WhatsApp has steadfastly refused to share the original source of the fake messages, saying user content on its platform is strictly encrypted.
Raising “serious concerns” over Facebook’s functioning, Prasad said its actions were going contrary to the company’s stated mission of giving people “the power to build communities and bring the world closer”.
“I have been informed that in the run-up to the 2019 general elections in India, there was a concerted effort by the Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to the affected people who are supportive of right-of-centre ideology. I am also aware that dozens of emails written to the Facebook management received no response. The above-documented cases of bias and inaction are seemingly a direct outcome of the dominant political beliefs of individuals in your Facebook India team,” he wrote.
Prasad said while people working in organisations are free to carry their individual likes or dislikes, “that must not have any bearing on the public policies and performance of the organisation”.
“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. It is doubly problematic when the bias of individuals becomes an inherent bias of the platform. And it is unacceptable when political biases of individuals impinge on the freedom of speech of millions of people,” he said.
The angry letter comes in the wake of reports in the US media about Facebook’s alleged bias for BJP. Opposition parties jumped on the reports based on emails purportedly exchanged among Facebook staffers, triggering a slugfest which is expected to dominate a meeting of the parliamentary panel on IT on Wednesday.
Prasad said stories and leaks in recent media reports showed that the “deeply entrenched vested interests aren’t satisfied with the shrinking space for one side of the spectrum in India and want to throttle it completely”.
The minister also accused the platform of being silent even in the face of “multiple instances recently where Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, to recruit people and to assemble them for violence”.
He said local sensitivities should be taken into account in Facebook community guidelines which must acknowledge the aspect of diversity. “To respect the social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of India, Facebook should put in place country-specific community guidelines.”
The letter, written by telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, accused the company’s senior management of bias and said the platform was “hijacked by a vested lobby that abhors free speech and tries to enforce one worldview and rejects diversity”.
“It seems from credible media reports that the Facebook India team, right from the India managing director to other senior officials, is dominated by people who belong to a particular political belief. People from this political pre-disposition have been overwhelmingly defeated by the people in successive free and fair elections. 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. Facebook is the latest tool in their arsenal to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances,” Prasad wrote.
The letter marks the deepening differences between the government and the American social media giant, which is also facing a CBI inquiry over the Cambridge Analytica data breach episode. Facebook-owned instant messenger WhatsApp has also been under regulatory heat after a series of lynching incidents across the country which were partly blamed on viral and fake messages spread on its platform. WhatsApp has steadfastly refused to share the original source of the fake messages, saying user content on its platform is strictly encrypted.
Raising “serious concerns” over Facebook’s functioning, Prasad said its actions were going contrary to the company’s stated mission of giving people “the power to build communities and bring the world closer”.
“I have been informed that in the run-up to the 2019 general elections in India, there was a concerted effort by the Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to the affected people who are supportive of right-of-centre ideology. I am also aware that dozens of emails written to the Facebook management received no response. The above-documented cases of bias and inaction are seemingly a direct outcome of the dominant political beliefs of individuals in your Facebook India team,” he wrote.
Prasad said while people working in organisations are free to carry their individual likes or dislikes, “that must not have any bearing on the public policies and performance of the organisation”.
“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. It is doubly problematic when the bias of individuals becomes an inherent bias of the platform. And it is unacceptable when political biases of individuals impinge on the freedom of speech of millions of people,” he said.
The angry letter comes in the wake of reports in the US media about Facebook’s alleged bias for BJP. Opposition parties jumped on the reports based on emails purportedly exchanged among Facebook staffers, triggering a slugfest which is expected to dominate a meeting of the parliamentary panel on IT on Wednesday.
Prasad said stories and leaks in recent media reports showed that the “deeply entrenched vested interests aren’t satisfied with the shrinking space for one side of the spectrum in India and want to throttle it completely”.
The minister also accused the platform of being silent even in the face of “multiple instances recently where Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, to recruit people and to assemble them for violence”.
He said local sensitivities should be taken into account in Facebook community guidelines which must acknowledge the aspect of diversity. “To respect the social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of India, Facebook should put in place country-specific community guidelines.”
[ad_2]
Source link