Hate Speech Row: Shashi Tharoor-Led Parliamentary Panel Summons Facebook On Sept 2

Amid the ongoing political slugfest between the Congress and BJP, the Parliamentary panel on IT has called Facebook representatives for a meeting to discuss the misuse of social media platforms.

AFP PHOTO / Rohit Jain Paras (Photo by Rohit Jain Paras / AFP)

Facebook Row:  In the latest development in the controversy over alleged 'misuse' of social media platforms by BJP, the Shashi Tharoor led parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology has summoned Facebook on September 2. ALSO READ|Congress Writes To Mark Zuckerberg Over Hate Speech Row, Demands Probe Into Conduct Of Facebook India's Team A day before, the panel will also discuss the issue of internet shutdowns and has called representatives of the Jammu and Kashmir administration and others. Besides representatives of Facebook, the committee has asked those from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to attend on September 2 to discuss the subject of "safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space". The agenda of the committee's September 2 meeting states that to "hear the views of the representatives of Facebook on the subject 'Safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space". This comes amid the battle within the Standing Committee, with two BJP members calling for the removal of Shashi Tharoor from the post of the panel chief. Call for removal of Tharoor as the Standing Committee panel chief On Thursday, Union minister Rajyavardhan Rathore and the BJP's Nishikant Dubey,  both members of the panel wrote to the Lok Sabha Speaker. Also Watch|Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore raises ques on Tharoor in Facebook hate speech case The BJP leaders have alleged that Tharoor has broken rules by tweeting his intention to summon Facebook before the panel without discussing it with the members. Dubey, who has already issued a notice for breach of privilege against Tharoor in response to a similar move from him called for his removal from the panel post. How did the Facebook row start? The political battle between the BJP and the Congress had started over the weekend as Rahul Gandhi tweeted a Wall Street Journal report which alleged that Facebook did not apply its hate speech rules to some BJP leaders. The report claimed that Facebook deliberately ignored disruptive content from members of the ruling BJP and right-wing groups even after the issue was flagged internally by Mark Zuckerberg. Quoting unnamed Facebook insiders, the report claimed that a senior Facebook India policy executive, Ankhi Das, had refused to ban a BJP MLA from Telangana despite his divisive posts. Also watch| Politics heats up over Tharoor seeking to hear from FB over hate speech issue The Congress party sought a time-bound high-level inquiry into the conduct of the Facebook India leadership team and its operations. In the letter to Zuckerberg, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal also demanded that pending the internal investigation and submission of the report, the company should "consider a new team to lead Facebook India operations so as to not influence the probe". Reacting to the controversy, Facebook on Monday said the company's social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation. "While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," a Facebook spokesperson said.