Facebook’s public policy head for South Asia and Central Asia, Ankhi Das, has approached the Delhi Police alleging threats to her life. This was a day after the US-based newspaper, The Wall Street Journal, accused her of favouring the BJP on hate speech and Islamophobia. The newspaper also accused the social media giant of helping the BJP during last year’s general elections.
Her four-page complaint filed before the Delhi Police has named at least five individuals using Facebook and Twitter handles. The Delhi Police has said that it had launched a probe. However, the cops had not yet registered an FIR.
The 49-year-old Facebook executive is facing serious allegations of manipulating her social media platform to help hatemongers in the BJP. Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary committee on Information and Technology, has said that his panel will summon Facebook for grilling in the wake of the stunning revelation made by The Wall Street Journal.
The Congress has said that the WSJ report proved that the RSS and the BJP effectively controlled Facebook and WhatsApp in India. This evoked an angry reaction from the BJP with Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad calling Congress MP Rahul Gandhi a ‘loser.’ Many wondered why the attack by the Congress had left the BJP more rattled than Facebook.
Facebook has issued a lame excuse to defend its beleaguered executives saying that it prohibited ‘hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation.”
Facebook, however, has not responded to serious allegations against its top Indian executive of being complicit with BJP hatemongers in spreading Islamophobia, which has claimed dozens of lives.
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