Facebook responds to Cong's letters, says taking its concerns 'seriously'

Facebook takes “seriously” the concerns raised by the Opposition Congress about its operations in India, it said in response to the two letters written by the party to the company’s founder Mark Zuckerberg alleging that the social media giant was being biased towards the ruling BJP.

Facebook, however, did not mention anything about the demand of the Congress to initiate investigations against the top leadership of the company in India after media reports suggested it did not subject posts by BJP leaders and organisations linked to the party, to the company’s policies against content that promote hatred and incite violence.

“We take seriously the concerns and recommendations you raised on behalf of the Indian National Congress,” Facebook’s director of Public Policy Neil Potts said in response to the two letters written by Congress general secretary K C Venugopal to Zuckerberg.

Potts, who also oversees the Trust and Safety Policy Team of the company, said Facebook is “non-partisan”. “We take allegations of bias seriously and want to make clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in all forms. In the last interaction with you and other esteemed members of your party, we described our Community Standards—our policies on what is and isn’t allowed on Facebook—and shared the steps we have taken on our platforms in the wake of COVID-19,” he said.

“We also rely extensively on inputs from a broad cross-section of internal teams who understand both local and global contexts in the enforcement of our policies on hate speech and dangerous organizations and individuals. We have a team with deep expertise on terrorism and organized hate, who pay attention to global and regional trends and advise on these matters. These decisions are not made unilaterally by any one person; rather, they are inclusive of different views from teams around the company, a process that is critical to making sure we consider, understand, and account for both the local and global contexts,” Potts said.

“On the question of hateful contents by public figures, we want to assure you that our Community Standards prohibit attacks against people based on their protected characteristics, including religion, caste, ethnicity, and national origin. In line with our hate speech policy, we have removed and will continue to remove hateful content by public figures in India on our platforms.”

Venugopal had first written to Zuckerberg after The Wall Street Journal said that Facebook’s India leadership did not apply “hate-speech rules” to leaders and groups linked to the BJP fearing such a move would harm its business in India, the company’s largest market.

The second letter sought an explanation from Zuckerberg after a report in the Time magazine said WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, was indirectly controlled by the BJP as it waits for an approval for a payments system.