Congress raises Facebook hate speech issue in Rajya Sabha; demands probe into its 'interference in India's electoral democracy'

The allegations against Facebook of turning a blind eye to the hate speeches of BJP and Hindutva supporters were raised in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday with the Congress demanding a probe by a Parliamentary committee into the social media giant's interference in the country's electoral democracy.

The issue was raised by senior Congress MP KC Venugopal through a special mention in the Rajya Sabha in which he said Facebook India's "blatant biases and dubious practices" have come out through media reports.

"This is a damning and serious allegation of Facebook India's interference in India's electoral democracy," he said.

He also demanded the publishing of all instances of hate speech posts since 2014 that were allowed on the platform. A parliamentary committee should be initiated to probe this very serious issue of Facebook's interference in our electoral democracy, he added.

Emphasising that India was one of the biggest markets in terms of users for Facebook and WhatsApp, Venugopal said that the expectations of social and moral responsibility of Facebook were even higher in nations such as ours.

Referring to reports about Facebook not taking action against hate posts by BJP leaders, he said they had repeatedly raised the issue of bias with many executives of Facebook and WhatsApp over the past few years that have fallen on "mostly deaf ears".

"In this regard, the government should ask for a high-level inquiry by Facebook Headquarters into the Facebook India leadership team and their operations and submit a report to the board of Facebook Inc. within a reasonable period of time," Venugopal, who had earlier written to Facebook Chief Mark Zuckerberg demanding action, said.