Amid Facebook hate speech row, What has happened until now
- Juhi Goyal
- Aug 21, 2020
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 21, 2021
A timeline of the Facebook incident:
The Wall Street Journal on August 14, published an article revealing how social media platform, Facebook, took no action against a BJP MLA whose posts were being classified as hate speech.
According to the article, T. Raja Singh, an MLA from Telangana posted on Facebook, saying that Rohingya Muslims should be shot and other statements which violated Facebook’s guidelines.
The article further stated that Facebook’s top public-policy executive in India, Ms. Ankhi Das intervened to stop him from being permanently banned, telling staff members that doing so to a BJP member would affect the company’s prospects in India.
Politicians were quick to react, with Rahul Gandhi tweeting on August 16 that BJP controls Facebook and Whatsapp in India.
Shashi Tharoor, the Chairman the Parliamentary Standing Committee of IT tweeted that the committee would like to hear from Facebook about the incident and about further plans to curb hate speech in India.
Indian IT Minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad took to Twitter as well, calling them ‘losers’ and accusing the Congress party of having an alliance with Cambridge Analytica to weaponise Facebook users’ data for elections.
On August 17, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey tweeted in response to Tharoor’s tweet, that Tharoor had no authority to do anything without the matter being discussed by its members.
Facebook responded to the controversy, issuing a statement that the platform ‘prohibits hate speech’ of any kind and that their policies are being enforced irrespective of ‘political position’ or ‘party affiliation’.
T. Raja Singh denied having made any post, and said that his Facebook account was hacked and blocked in 2018. He stated in a video that he does not have any official page and many pages have been using his name.
Shashi Tharoor then filed a notice for ‘breach of privilege’ against Mr. Dubey, alleging that his remarks on social media were ‘disparaging’. He said that Mr. Dubey falsely accused him of ‘championing’ his party’s agenda through his position without permission from the Speaker and the committee. He urged Lok Sabha Speaker, Mr. Om Birla to initiate proceedings against the BJP MP on account of ‘breach of privilege as an MP and contempt of the House’.
Nishikant Dubey wrote to Mr. Om Birla demanding that Tharoor be removed as the panel chief. Union Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore seconded the demand, and accused Shashi Tharoor of ‘flouting the rules’.
Now both, Mr. Tharoor and Mr. Dubey have filed breach of privilege motions against each other.
Facebook representatives have been summoned by the Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Mr. Tharoor. The panel will hear the representatives on September 2. The Committee has also asked representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and IT to be present to discuss the issue of ‘safeguarding citizens’ rights’, ‘preventing misuse of social media platforms’ and ‘women security in the digital space’.
Writer: Juhi Goyal
Image Courtesy: Getty Images
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