Cong writes another letter to Zuckerberg, this time for details on WhatsApp
The Congress has written to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg for the second time in two weeks seeking details of the measures the social media giant is taking to look into charges that the company’s India unit had failed to act against hate content of leaders and organisations associated with the BJP.
The letter by party general secretary KC Venugopal is a follow-up to the letter written on August 17 demanding that the company investigate a report in The Wall Street Journal that Facebook India had failed to apply its rules against hate speech and content inciting violence to the posts of some BJP leaders.
In the latest letter sent on Saturday, the Congress has also sought an explanation from Zuckerberg on allegations that WhatsApp, a property owned by Facebook, is also indirectly controlled by the BJP as it waits for an approval for a payments system.
The party referred to an article that appeared in the Time magazine on August 27 that reveals “more information and evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)”.
Venugopal said the party is “compelled to write again in such short span of time because of further information and revelations made public” by a new article in a publication “that are alarming and violate both the spirit and the law of operations of foreign companies in India”.
He said the article makes three points: that the BJP’s controls WhatsApp’s India operations in return for a possible licence for payment operations; many from Facebook India’s leadership team are biased in favour of the BJP; and that the India team has allowed WhatsApp to be appropriated for hate speech.
As the principal Opposition party of India, the Congress would like to know the steps the company is planning to take to investigate these matters, Venugopal said.
In its letter written on August 17, the party said Facebook India was “interfering” with the country’s electoral democracy and demanded a high-level probe into its leadership in India and their operations. The letter, again written by Venugopal, said “a new team” should be put in place in India till the investigations against the current top-level team is completed.
