BJP, RSS control Facebook: Rahul Gandhi after US media report

The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh control Facebook and WhatsApp in India, said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday (August 16), in a fresh attack against the ruling party at the Centre.

Gandhi’s attack came after the Wall Street Journal, a prominent US media outlet, reported that the social media giant has been ignoring ‘hate posts’ by leaders of the saffron party. In a tweet, he alleged the BJP and the RSS spread fake news and hatred through Facebook to influence voters.

“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,” read Gandhi’s tweet.

The WSJ report, published on Friday, claimed that a top Facebook executive in India didn’t apply “hate-speech rules” against the BJP and other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups despite their anti-Muslim posts.

The article said that Ankhi Das, Facebook’s top public-policy executive in India, “opposed applying the hate speech rules” against Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh, as it “would damage the company’s business prospects in the country,” given the fact that India is Facebook’s biggest global market in terms of number of users.

MLA Singh, notorious for his incendiary remarks against the Muslim community, had called Indian Muslims traitors in a Facebook post, and demanded that Rohingya refugees be shot dead.

Related news: Fearing backlash, FB refused to flag ‘hate posts’ by BJP leaders: Report

Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone also said that Das had “raised concerns about the political fallout” but also that her opposition to flag content “wasn’t the sole factor in the company’s decision to let Singh remain on the platform.”

This contradicts Facebook’s claims of having taken proactive steps to curb hate speech on its platform. In its Community Standards Enforcement Report, published a few days ago, it had said it removed 2.25 crore ‘hate posts’ during April-June from its platform. It said most of these actions were taken even before the posts were reported by users.

Related news: To curb hate speech, Facebook removes 2 crore posts in three months