Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday, 16 August, alleged that the BJP and the RSS control Facebook and 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,” Gandhi posted on Twitter on Sunday, attaching screenshots to an article by The Wall Street Journal titled, ‘Facebook Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics: Company executive opposed move to ban controversial politician’.
The article by a foreign publication, became the latest flashpoint between the Congress and the BJP on Sunday.
On Saturday, the WSJ reported that citing business imperatives, Facebook’s top public policy executive in India “opposed applying hate-speech rules” to at least four individuals and groups linked with the BJP despite the fact that they were “flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence.”
“BJP and RSS control Facebook and 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,” Gandhi tweeted.
Responding to Gandhi’s tweet, MP and senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also posted, “The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology would certainly wish to hear from @Facebook about these reports & what they propose to do about hate-speech in India.”
BJP’s Ravi Shankar Prasad took on Gandhi’s tweet and retaliated by saying: “Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS.”
In its reaction to the swirling controversy fuelled by the report in the Wall Street Journal, Facebook said the company’s social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation.
