Facebook Executive’s Posts Reveal Political Bias, Says New Report

Ankhi Das is head of public coverage in Facebook India (File)

New Delhi:

A Facebook govt on the centre of allegations that the social networking web site didn’t apply hate speech guidelines on members of the ruling BJP has been named in a second Wall Street Journal report on inner messages that allegedly present political bias.

According to the Wall Street Journal report, Ankhi Das, head of public coverage in Facebook India, “made internal postings over several years” detailing her help for the ruling BJP and disparaging its important rival, behaviour some employees noticed as conflicting with the corporate’s pledge to stay impartial in elections all over the world.

Ankhi Das, the report claims, posted the day earlier than Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept to victory within the 2014 nationwide election: “We lit a fire to his social media campaign and the rest is of course history.”

In a separate put up on the Congress defeat, Ms Das praised PM Modi and wrote: “It’s taken thirty years of grassroots work to rid India of state socialism finally.”

Ms Das known as Facebook’s prime international elections official, Katie Harbath, her “longest fellow traveller” within the firm’s work together with his marketing campaign. In a photograph, Ms Das stood, smiling, between Mr Modi and Ms Harbath.

WSJ says the posts cowl the years 2012 to 2014 and had been made to a Facebook group designed for workers in India, which included a number of hundred workers, although it was open to anybody within the firm globally who needed to hitch.

In an earlier report, the Journal had reported that Facebook ignored incendiary content material from members of the BJP and the rightwing. It additionally mentioned an govt mentioned punishing violations by BJP staff “would damage (its) business prospects”.

Facebook India has been requested to seem earlier than a parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology – which is chaired by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor – on September 2, to reply questions raised by the article.

Facebook mentioned final Tuesday that the posts by Ms Das do not present inappropriate bias. “These posts are taken out of context and don’t represent the full scope of Facebook’s efforts to support the use of our platform by parties across the Indian political spectrum,” spokesman Andy Stone mentioned.

Facebook had mentioned its social media platform prohibits hate speech and content material that incites violence and these insurance policies are enforced globally with out regard to political affiliation.