'Facebook Employees Abusing PM On Record, Deleting Pages': RS Prasad Writes To Mark Zuckerberg Alleging Bias

Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg raising several concerns including senior officials of the India unit of the platform abusing the Prime Minister

Amid the ongoing political row over social media platforms in India, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Tuesday wrote a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg raising several concerns including senior officials of the India unit of the platform abusing the Prime Minister. In his long letter, the senior minister pointed out Facebook officials on record abusing Prime Minister and other senior cabinet ministers; and said that it is problematic when senior managing employees holding key positions indulge in objectionable terms while still working in Facebook India. "It is doubly problematic when the bias of individuals becomes an inherent bias of the platform. And it is unacceptable when political biases of individuals impinge on the freedom of speech of millions of people," RD Prasad said.

Pointing out to the contrary of goals enlisted by Facebook, the Union Minister said that in the run up to 2019 General Elections in India, there was a concerted effort by Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to affected people who are supportive of the right-of-centre ideology. Prasad complained of the emails written to Facebook management which went unanswered and alleged "above documented cases of bias and inaction are seemingly a direct outcome of the dominant political beliefs of individuals in your Facebook India team." Without taking any names, RS Prasad further in the letter attacked some political groups saying, "they are trying to discredit India's democratic process by dominating the decision-making apparatus of important social media platforms. Facebook is the latest tool in their arsenal to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances." The minister also raised concerns over the outsourcing of fact-checking to third party fact-checkers. He questioned the firm over absolving itself of its responsibility to protect users from misinformation and instead out-source this to shady organizations with no credibility. "Facebook Community Guidelines must acknowledge this aspect of diversity and respect it. To respect the social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of India, Facebook should put in place country specific Community Guidelines," Prasad wrote. Meanwhile, 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. The allegations by Wayanad MP came days after he alleged Narendra Modi Government of controlling social media platforms.