Opposition
party also seeks probe by JPC
|
New Delhi(Agencies): The
Congress on Saturday wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the second time
in a month, asking what steps were being taken on repeated allegations about
the global social media giant’s India unit being biased towards the ruling BJP.
At a press conference, the
opposition party also demanded an investigation by a Joint Parliamentary
Committee into the alleged “links of Facebook employees and the ruling
establishment”.
The Congress’ letter to
Zuckerberg came over an article in Time magazine, which the opposition party
claimed “revealed” more information and “evidence of biases and a quid pro quo
relationship” of Facebook India with the Bharatiya Janata Party.
There was no immediate
reaction from Facebook or the BJP on the allegations. A report in the Wall
Street Journal earlier this month had brought to fore similar allegations,
which were strongly rejected by both Facebook and the BJP.
Tagging the Time magazine
report, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claimed in a tweet that it exposes the
“WhatsApp-BJP nexus”.
“Used by 40 Cr Indians,
WhatsApp also wants to be used for making payments for which Modi Government’s
approval is needed. Thus, BJP has a hold over WhatsApp,” he alleged, without
elaborating.
Popular messaging app WhatsApp
is also owned by Facebook.
In his letter to Zuckerberg,
Congress general secretary organisation, K C Venugopal, referred to his earlier
letter dated August 17 in which the party had requested the US-based company to
investigate the allegations made in the Wall Street Journal article that the
social media platform refused to apply hate speech rules to certain BJP
politicians.
“We draw your attention to the
article in Time magazine dated August 27 that reveals more information and
evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party,” Venugopal said in the new letter dated August
29 and asked for details of steps being taken by the group.
“We will also be pursuing
legislative and judicial actions in India to ensure that a foreign company
cannot continue to cause social disharmony in our nation for their pursuit of
private profits,” he said.
At the party’s press
conference, spokesperson Pawan Khera and AICC data analytics department chief
Praveen Chakravarty called for an “exhaustive and unbiased investigation by a
Joint Parliamentary Committee between the unending links of Facebook employees
and the ruling establishment”.
“The investigation must
include how Facebook manipulated voter opinion, allowed hate speech and was
oblivious to fake news, even when they were in clear violation of their own
regulations,” they said in a statement.
“WhatsApp cannot be granted
approvals for its payment operations until the inquiry is complete and the
recommended actions are taken by the company,” Khera and Chakravarty said.
They also demanded that the
report of the investigation ordered by Facebook into the conduct of its Indian
unit be made public.
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