Over the last few days, a debate has cropped up over Facebook's censorship of hate comments. It seems to have begun with a Wall Street Journal report that said that the company was loath to apply its guidelines against some Indian leaders, and then progressed to name-calling, allegations and counter-accusations and 'exposé'.
According to the article, a senior Facebook official in India was opposed to applying hate speech rules against leaders associated with the BJP and other Hindutva groups. As per the report, Ankhi Das, who is Facebook’s top public policy executive in India, opposed applying hate speech rules to the BJP’s T. Raja Singh out of fear of ruining the company’s relationship with the ruling party.
Quoting the report, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had on Sunday said that the "BJP and RSS control Facebook and WhatsApp in India". This prompted Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to hit back calling him a "loser".
And while a virtual war of words raged, RTI activist Saket Gokhale claimed that he had uncovered the connection between Ankhi Das and the BJP. Das is the public policy director of Facebook India and according to Gokhale, has been "working for the BJP".
"In June 2017, the Election Commission began a partnership with Facebook India for a voter awareness campaign. This partnership was launched by Facebook India's Ankhi Das together with then-Chief Election Commissioner Dr.Nasim Zaidi. Things then got dodgy in a year," he writes.
In a lengthy twitter thread, he wondered, "how much the organisation had under "helped BJP during the elections" under Ankhi Das.
"Why did the Spokesperson of the Election Commission of India merely stand by and watch? With reports of Ankhi Das' close links to BJP, her lobbying for them and hate speech, how much disinformation did Facebook India allow during elections?" he wondered.
Quoting a January interview from The Mojo, Gokhale also spoke about Rashmi Das, who he explained was a former ABVP President in JNU as well as Ankhi Das' sister. She is also the former Chairperson of the World Organization of Students and Youth, and according to Gokhale, "WOSY runs out of the same office as the RSS-operated Rashtriya Kala Manch at 26, DDU Marg in Delhi."
Gokhale's many tweets on the subject add that these revelations are not much of a surprise. "With such intricate links to the BJP & Sangh Parivar, is it any surprise that Facebook's India Policy Head Ankhi Das shows favoritism for the BJP? Any surprise that she doesn't allow hate speech by BJP leaders to be taken down and also lobbies with the Modi Govt for FB? (sic)," he tweeted.
Following the posts, two organisations have sought an apology from Gokhale. While the ABVP in a press note accused the Congress of "propagating fake news, the WOSY said that it was taking "strong objection" to the fake news peddled by Mr Saket Gokhale about our former Chairperson Dr Rashmi Das and her sister".
