Tharoor flouted rules, remove him as panel chief: BJP MPs to Speaker

Two BJP MPs, who are also the members of the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology (IT), have written to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla against panel chief Shashi Tharoor for issuing summons to social media giant Facebook over a media report alleging bias in flagging hate speech content on its platform.

While Nishikant Dubey has requested the Speaker that Tharoor be removed from the post of the Chairman of the Committee, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore has complained against the Thiruvananthapuram MP for “flouting rules”. A day earlier, both Dubey and Tharoor had filed breach of privilege motions against each other.

“I’ve written another letter to Lok Sabha Speaker today requesting him to persuade Shashi Tharoor to not take meetings of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology. I’ve also requested that he be removed from Chairman post,” said Dubey, according to news agency ANI.

After Dubey, who on Wednesday accused Tharoor of violating panel rules, Rathore too made a similar accusation in his letter to the Speaker.

“I have written to (LS Speaker) Om Birla against Parliamentary IT Committee’s Chairman (Shashi Tharoor) as he flouted rules. We’re not against any representative of any organisation being called, but he (Tharoor), instead of discussing with us, discusses with media,” said Rathore, a member of the Committee.

The Opposition and the BJP leaders had been firing salvos at each other since a Wall Street Journal report claimed last week one of Facebook’s senior policy executives had intervened in an internal communication to prevent a permanent ban on a saffron party MLA after he allegedly made communally charged posts.

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Taking to social media, Tharoor had said that the IT Committee, which he heads, would like to hear from Facebook about the media report on its conduct. He found support from TMC’s Mahua Moitra, who said, “Amazing how BJP jumps up and down at anything to do with FB’s interests!” Moitra is also a member of the Standing Committee.

Reacting to the controversy, Facebook has said it prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation. “While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy,” said a Facebook spokesperson.

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