India asks Facebook CEO for country specific Community Guidelines

Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday shot off a letter to Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg calling for country specific Community Guidelines which will respect the social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of India.

Prasad wrote to Zuckerberg raising serious concerns over the fact that the social media company’s employees are on record abusing the Prime Minister and senior Cabinet Ministers of India while still working in Facebook India and managing important positions.

Prsad said, 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.

In a strongly worded letter, Prasad also told the social media giant that individuals working in any organization may have their individual likes or dislikes, but that must not have any bearing on the public policies of the organization.

He said, 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 particular political belief.

In the letter, Prasad said, Facebook is not supporting the right of centre ideology. I have been informed that in the run up to 2019 General Elections in India, there was a concerted effort by Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to affected people who are supportive of right of centre ideology.

The development comes soon after a report by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) that put Facebook in the line of fire. The report alleged that the company’s policy chief Ankhi Das had asked moderators to refrain from taking down posts by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician, T. Raja Singh, even after they were found to be dangerous and designated as hate speech. Das told the company that it would hurt its interests in India if the posts were taken down.

Following the news report, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi criticized Facebook for allegedly favouring the BJP, and alleged that the American firm was controlled by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of BJP, in India.