2020 Delhi Riots: Panel Grills Facebook India Officials. 'Don't Want Hate On Our Platform,' Says FB
On July 9, 2021, the Supreme Court held the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee’s right to question Facebook India officials as valid.
New Delhi: Chairman of Delhi Assembly’s Committee on Peace and Harmony Raghav Chadha on Thursday sought to know about Meta Chief Executive Officer’s role in Facebook India’s public policy.
This came as Facebook’s Public Policy Director Shivnath Thukral and Director (Legal) GV Anand Bhushan appeared before the committee which seeks to ascertain social media’s role in curbing hate speech post the 2020 Delhi Riots.
In the hearing, Raghav Chadha asked about Mark Zuckerberg’s involvement in Facebook India’s public policy, a tweet by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) informed.
The Facebook official replied, “We are structured in a manner where we have enough checks and balances to coordinate across the world.”
What action was taken by Facebook to curb FAKE news & HATE speech during #DelhiRiots?
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 18, 2021
Watch how META official stonewalls every question by Peace & Harmony Committee Chairman @raghav_chadha & Member @JoonBhupinder: pic.twitter.com/nT0RHMiB92
The chairman of the Peace and Harmony Committee grilled the Facebook officials regarding the organisational structure, the complaints redressal mechanism, community standards and hate speech definitions with respect to the social media giant.
Raghav Chadha asked Shivnath Thukral, the public policy director of Facebook India (Meta Platforms), about the number of registered users that the social media giant has across the world and in India.
He was informed that there are over a billion registered users are on Facebook throughout the world, out of which around 400 million users are from India,
On this, the AAP leader said, “That means around 40 per cent of the market of Facebook belongs to India, then the CEO must closely look at one market that gives him 40 per cent of the total outcome”, as quoted by ANI.
During the hearing, Ragav Chadha asked: “During Delhi riots, many incendiary and communally sensitive posts from India have got amplified on Facebook. What measures have been taken by Facebook India in order to take down such posts?”
What action was taken by Facebook to curb FAKE news & HATE speech during #DelhiRiots?
— AAP (@AamAadmiParty) November 18, 2021
Watch how META official stonewalls every question by Peace & Harmony Committee Chairman @raghav_chadha & Member @JoonBhupinder: pic.twitter.com/nT0RHMiB92
The Facebook official declined to comment on the specific instance but stressed general measures taken by Facebook to tackle hate speech content. He talked about use of machine learning tools and algorithms, user awareness campaigns, and fact-checking partners as some of the tools used by the social media giant to deal with the issue.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Assembly committee also asked Facebook India to furnish records of users’ reports (complaints) on the content posted on the platform one month prior and two months after the northeast Delhi riots in February 2020, news agency PTI reported.
The public policy director said that Facebook is not a law enforcement agency but it has a mechanism to cooperate with such agencies whenever required.
“When things happen in the real world, they reflect on our platform as well. We do not want hate on our platform. There are some bad actors that need to be worked on,” he said during the hearing, as quoted by PTI.
Shivnath Thukral also stated that Facebook has 40,000 people working on content management, including 15,000 dealing with content moderation.
Any content found against the community standards followed by the platform is taken down immediately, he added.
The Committee will again call the Facebook officials for the hearing and will make a decision on it, chairman Raghav Chadha said.
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Delhi Riots & Delhi Assembly’s Peace And Harmony Committee
In February 2020, violence took place in the northeast area of Delhi between groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Following this, the Peace and Harmony Committee (Committee) was constituted by the Delhi Legislative Assembly to probe the Delhi riots of February 2020.
On July 9, 2021, the Supreme Court held the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee’s right to question Facebook India officials as valid.
Then Delhi Legislative Assembly’s committee on 'Peace and Harmony' on October 29 this year, decided to call on Facebook India to send an appropriate senior representative over the “role of social media in curbing the spread of false and malicious messages which can fan disharmony and affect peace”.
As per PTI, the panel has so far heard seven witnesses while examining the role of social media platforms in connection with the Delhi riots that claimed over 50 lives and left hundreds of people injured in February 2020.
(With Inputs From Agencies)
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