Delhi Assembly panel issues fresh summons to Facebook

FB India V- P was earlier asked to depose before committee on Sept. 15

A fresh notice has been issued by the Delhi Assembly’s peace and harmony committee to Facebook India vice president and managing director Ajit Mohan to ensure his presence to depose before it on Wednesday over allegations of “deliberate inaction on the part of the social media platform to apply hate speech rules.”

A statement issued by the panel, on Sunday, warned that any defiance to the subsequent notice for appearance will be deemed to be an act of “breach of the constitutionally guaranteed privileges” of the committee.

The final warning to the social media giant was issued by the committee chaired by Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) MLA Raghav Chadha as Mr Mohan did not appear for his deposition during the last meeting of the panel.

Mr Chadha had said the non- appearance of the top Facebook official to depose before the committee was a contempt of the Delhi Legislative Assembly as well as the people of the national capital. He had insisted that Facebook honour the proceedings taking place under the state legislature in the same manner as they did for a parliamentary standing committee.

The fresh notice comes days after Facebook India executives, including Mr Mohan, snubbed a call to appear before the Assembly panel on September 15. In a written response, they said they had already appeared before a parliamentary panel on this issue and, therefore, the Assembly should withdraw its summons.

The social media giant met the parliamentary panel, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, this month and is due to appear before that panel again.

The committee said that the indifference exhibited by the representative of Facebook India is also a contempt to the people of Delhi... was unanimously decided... that in the event of subsequent default, ( the) committee shall be constrained to invoke its power to initiate breach of privilege proceedings against Facebook India and thus ( invite) penal jurisdiction of the house.”

The “peace and harmony” committee was set up by the Delhi Assembly after riots in February over the Citizenship ( Amendment) Act in which over 50 people were killed and hundreds injured.

The committee had taken cognisance of the accusations against Facebook for its alleged “complicity” in the Delhi riots on the premise of the “incriminatory material” produced on record by the witnesses as well as their depositions in its previous meetings.

This was after reports by US publications that cited interviews with unnamed insiders to allege that hate speech rules were not applied in the case of inflammatory posts by Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and right- wing activists. A report - by the Wall Street Journal - identified Ankhi Das, Facebook India's policy chief, as saying punishing violations by BJP workers "would damage the company's business prospects in the country"..

One report by Time magazine referred to BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s controversial video which was among several played by the Delhi High Court in its hearing on the matter. In response, the social media giant insisted that it applied hate speech rules uniformly and without any consideration to political parties that may be involved.

The foreign media reports triggered a political slugfest between the BJP and the Congress, which has written letters to Facebook founder Mark Zukerberg. Amid allegations that it controls social media narratives, the BJP hit back by pointing out the Congress was approached by data firm Cambridge Analytica to “weaposise” data before last year’s Lok Sabha polls.

A statement issued by the panel, on Sunday, warned that any defiance to the subsequent notice for appearance will be deemed to be an act of ‘ breach of the constitutionally guaranteed privileges’ of the committee

The final warning to the social media giant was issued by the committee chaired by Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP) MLA Raghav Chadha as Mr Mohan did not appear for his deposition during the last meeting of the panel