New Delhi: Facebook’s fact-checking team has not found any content that necessitates a ban on the Bajrang Dal, the social media media’s India head Ajit Mohan said as he appeared before a parliamentary panel on Wednesday. Notably, the panel headed by Shashi Tharoor had summoned Mohan on the issue of the citizens’ data safety. This came after a report on Facebook not banning Bajrang Dal due to fear of risking business and staff safety surfaced.
Mohan was accompanied by Shivnath Thukral, the public policy director of Facebook. Congress MP Karti Chidambaram, along with Tharoor, questioned Mohan about a recent Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report suggesting that the social media giant is reluctant on banning the Bajrang Dal on its platform due to financial reasons and concerns over the safety of its staff, the sources told news agency PTI.
The WSJ report suggested that despite an internal assessment calling for a ban on the Bajrang Dal, Facebook has not cracked down on the Hindu nationalist group due to these reasons.
Replying to queries, Mohan suggested to the panel members that the Facebook fact team consultant has so far not found any such element in the content posted by the Bajrang Dal that is violative of its social media policies.
Further quizzing him, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey asked if the Bajrang Dal content was not found to be violative of its social media policies, then why did the Facebook not deny the WSJ report and termed it as fake.
It must be noted that this is not the first time that Facebook is being slow in fighting hate speech in a country. The company has also come under fire for not acting against hate speech in countries such as Myanmar, Sri Lanka and the Philippines.
