We are transparent, non-partisan: FB
Like a truly diverse organization, our employees represent a varied political spectrum who have either served in many administrations or have political experience. AJIT MOHAN, Facebook India head
NEW DELHI: Facebook is a non-partisan platform that denounces hate and bigotry, the social media company’s India head said in a statement on Friday in an attempt to address allegations of political bias after a media report said its executives based in Delhi blocked action against a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician.
Friday’s statement, uploaded on the website, was signed by Facebook India head Ajit Mohan, who did not go into the specific allegations against the company’s India policy head Ankhi Das.
Das, according to an August 14 report by Wall Street Journal citing unnamed company insiders, opposed applying hate-speech rules to some members linked to Bharatiya Janata Party, including Telangana MLA T Raja Singh.
“The decisions around content escalations are not made unilaterally by just one person ... the process comes with robust checks and balances,” Mohan, wrote in an online post titled “We are open, transparent and non-partisan”.
The statement did not go into specific allegations that the company was giving Bharatiya Janata Party a preferential treatment. Mohan, who has previously defended Das in an internal memo, backed company employees on Friday without naming the policy executive.
“This also reflects in our organizational set up - like a truly diverse organization, our employees represent a varied political spectrum who have either served in many administrations or have political experience and take immense pride in being active contributors to public service. Despite hailing from diverse political affiliations and backgrounds, they perform their respective duties and interpret our policies in a fair and non-partisan way,” the statement said.
Facebook has been battling political fallout in recent days. The opposition Congress criticised the company while some ruling-party lawmakers have accused it of censoring rightwing voices to ostensibly pander to liberal sentiments.
On Thursday, news agency Reuters reported that some Facebook employees in the United States and beyond had raised questions in internal forums about whether adequate content regulation practices were being followed by the India team.
In an internal open letter to Facebook’s leadership, 11 employees demanded that company leaders acknowledge and denounce “anti-muslim bigotry” and ensure more policy consistency.
One source had said there was a debate happening internally at Facebook about content moderation processes.
A parliamentary standing committee on information and technology has summoned representatives of the social media company to appear before it on September 2 to present their views on the issue of safeguarding citizens’ rights and prevention of misuse of social and online news media.