Govt letter to FB baffling, but an inquiry is in order

The Government of India, through law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, has petitioned the chief executive of social media platform Facebook that the personnel heading the company’s India operations have been inimical to the right of the centre political thought and that they have been aligned with those who “stoke internal divisions and social disturbances” in the country. The minister has also inferred that reports putting Facebook’s activities in India under cloud reflect “nothing but an internal power struggle within your company for an ideological hegemony”.

That the government has refused to see the impropriety of a minister, who ought to represent the people at the left, right and the centre of the political spectrum and even those who are beyond politics, taking a partisan approach cannot be missed. But the more serious issues that the letter raises, and their background, need careful assessment.

It was not long ago that the Wall Street Journal came out with a report that Team Facebook India short- changed its own policies and refused to act against people and organisations affiliated to the BJP and the Sangh Parivar who used the platform for inciting violence and spreading communal hatred. The company’s top officials, the report said, cited potential loss of business should it go against the interests of the ruling dispensation.

In an apparent effort to turn the tables on critics, the law minister accuses Facebook of torpedoing BJP’s election propaganda by deleting pages or substantially reducing the reach of the people who are supportive of its ideology. He says the people at the management are tools in the hands of those who “are trying to discredit India’s democratic process”. The minister has in no uncertain terms told Mr Mark Zuckerburg that it is problematic when Facebook employees are on record abusing the Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers, and pointed out that political biases of individuals at the company impinge on the freedom of speech of millions of people.

The charges, to sum up, are too critical: Facebook’s actions seek to undermine or interfere with our democratic process and harm freedom of speech; it colludes with “anarchic and radical elements” who target social harmony using the platform and stoke social disturbances.

The law minister, wittingly or unwittingly, has echoed the Opposition charge that Facebook in its present form is a biased media platform that has the potential to damage our democracy; only the interpretation on who makes use of it has changed. It, along with a lot of like- minded people, has already demanded an investigation by a joint parliamentary committee to get to the bottom of the allegations. Since the government shares these concerns, it must order a comprehensive probe that can address them all.

In the meantime, the government may also reflect on the demands it has made on the social media giant and what it has been doing about putting in place community guidelines that “respect the social, religious, cultural and linguistic diversity of India”.

The charges, to sum up, are too critical: Facebook’s actions seek to undermine or interfere with our democratic process and harm freedom of speech; it colludes with ‘ anarchic and radical elements’...