Facebook has responded to the heated controversy that the social media giant is not properly examining the hate speech posted on its platform by members of India's ruling party, the BJP.
The Mark Zuckerberg-led company said in a statement that "we prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally regardless of anyone's political position or party membership."
"While we know there is still a long way to go, we are making progress on enforcement and regularly auditing our process to ensure fairness and accuracy."
It came after the Wall Street Journal published a report that Facebook turned a blind eye to hate messages posted by members of the ruling party. In addition, a Facebook executive had told his staff members that punishing such posts could even hurt its business in its largest markets by number of users, according to the report.
Former INC chief Rahul Gandhi was quick to criticize the BJP on Twitter, citing the WSJ report. He accused the ruling party of spreading "false news and hate through him and using it to influence the electorate".
Losers who can't influence people even in their own party keep saying the whole world is controlled by BJP & RSS.
Have you been caught in the act of alliance with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to militarize data ahead of the election and now have the nerve to question us? https://t.co/NloUF2WZVY
- Ravi Shankar Prasad (@rsprasad) Aug 16, 2020
In return, Indian IT minister and BJP member Ravi Shankar Prasad criticized Gandhi's tweet. "You were caught in the act of alliance with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to militarize data ahead of the election and now have the nerve to question us?" he said.
The world's largest social network, Facebook, often finds itself in the midst of political controversies. Perhaps the biggest incident to date has been the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where data from Facebook users was used to influence the US election.
Facebook wants us to believe that it has created an ideal world on the Internet. But the hard pill is that its platforms, including Facebook and WhatsApp, act as a vehicle to influence people in countries like India, which can even lead to real-world violence.
According to the report, Facebook offers personalized experiences in key markets to appeal to politicians. For example, it follows stricter rules on hate speech in Germany. In Vietnam, the company agreed to restrict anti-government content to prevent the government from disrupting its local servers. Still, the company has yet to draw the lines Zuckerberg said once they exist and will be enforced.