FACEBOOK WRITES TO CONG, SAYS IT IS NON-PARTISAN

Having faced a barrage of criticism from the Congress over allegations of political bias, social media giant Facebook on Thursday informed the party that it was “non-partisan” and denounced “hate speech” in any form.

The Congress on its part said it would wait for “further concrete” action.

In a letter to Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal, Facebook, Trust and Safety Director, Public Policy Neil Potts said: “First and foremost, we want to take this opportunity to state that we are nonpartisan and strive to ensure that our platforms remain a space where people can express themselves freely”.

“We take allegations of bias seriously and want to make clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in all forms. On the question of hateful content by public figures, we want to assure you that our Community Standards prohibit attacks against people based on their protected characteristics, including religion, caste, ethnicity, and national origin. In line with our hate speech policy, we have removed and will continue to remove hateful content by public figures in India on our platforms,” Mr Potts said in the letter.

He was replying to a letter written by Mr Venugopal on August 18.