'Attack On India's Democracy, Social Harmony': Rahul Gandhi Demands Probe Into Alleged BJP-Facebook Nexus

While sharing a media report, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the international media have fully exposed Facebook and Whatsapp.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi. (File Photo/ AFP)

New Delhi: Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday demanded strict probe into the operations of social media platforms including Facebook and WhatsApp for allegedly assaulting India's democracy and social harmony. While sharing a media report, Rahul Gandhi claimed that the international media have fully exposed Facebook and Whatsapp. "International media have fully exposed Facebook’s & WhatsApp's brazen assault on India's democracy & social harmony. No one, let alone a foreign company, can be allowed to interfere in our nation's affairs. They must be investigated immediately & when found guilty, punished," the Congress leader tweeted citing a media report.

International media have fully exposed Facebook’s & WhatsApp's brazen assault on India's democracy & social harmony. No one, let alone a foreign company, can be allowed to interfere in our nation's affairs. They must be investigated immediately & when found guilty, punished. pic.twitter.com/5tRw797L2y

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 1, 2020

The allegations by Wayanad MP came days after he alleged Narendra Modi Government of controlling social media platforms. Rahul Gandhi tweeted a Time Magazine news report and claimed that WhatsApp is under control of the Indian Government as it needs its approval for payments services to its 40 crore user base in India. Prior to this, Rahul Gandhi had also tweeted a similar story by American publisher Wall Street Journal alleging Facebook for going soft on right-wing ideology. Over the past few weeks, the Congress leader has been aggressively attacking Prime Minister and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and alleged that the WhatsApp now needs the approval of the Central government to launch its payment services in India. Even the Congress party had alleged "quid-pro-quo" relationship between Facebook and the BJP and wrote a letter to the social networking platform founder Mark Zuckerberg seeking information about steps the company is planning to take to investigate the matter.

Congress Party has written two letters to Facebook Chairman Mark Zuckerberg asking him for an inquiry into India operations based on first two articles. Now, based on this article, we wonder if Facebook HQ is impartial themselves: Shri @pravchak pic.twitter.com/bmAygBs9rG

— Congress (@INCIndia) September 1, 2020

"We draw your attention to the article in Time magazine dated Aug 27, 2020, that reveals more information and evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)," read the letter by Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal to Zuckerberg. The party had earlier sent a letter to Zuckerberg on August 17 drawing his attention to an article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Facebook's Hate-Speech Rules Collide with Indian Politics" that outlined Facebook India team's "blatant biases and interference" in India's democracy, Venugopal stated.