In the light of revelations made by The Washington Post about the alleged role of Facebook, WhatsApp and YouTube for allegedly inciting communal hatred, the INDIA bloc has written letters to the CEOs of Meta and Google — Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai, urging them to ensure that their platforms remain “neutral” ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha Polls and cautioned them not to allow their platforms to be “used wittingly or unwittingly to cause social unrest or distort India’s much cherished democratic ideals”.
The letter signed by Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal on behalf of the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) has been endorsed by Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party president Rahul Gandhi and heads of other 12 of the 28-member parties
In the two letters, the bloc has underlined that they represented nearly half of all Indian voters. The letter accuses both Meta and Google of “suppressing” opposition leaders’ content while promoting the ruling party content. “Such blatant partisanship and bias towards one political formation by a private foreign company, INDIA bloc said, is tantamount to interfering in India’s democracy, one that we in the INDIA alliance cannot but take it seriously,” the letter says.
In case of the Google’s platform YouTube, the letter cites The Washington Post article, “He live-streamed his attacks on Indian Muslims. YouTube gave him an award”, which details the role of cow vigilante Monu Manesar’s YouTube channel who was arrested on September 12 in a murder case. He received a “silver creator” award from YouTube for reaching 1,00,000 subscribers last October. “It is very clear from this exhaustive investigation by The Washington Post that Alphabet and specifically YouTube is culpable of abetting social disharmony and inviting communal hatred in India,” the letter says.
In the letter to Mr. Zuckerberg, the bloc has flagged The Washington Post’s article from the same date, “Under India’s pressure, Facebook let propaganda and hate speech thrive,” which lays out evidence of platform’s pro-government slant in India. “This was well-known to us in the Opposition for a long time and have even raised it several times in the past,” the letter says.
To both the CEOs, the letter urges them to ensure that their platforms “remain neutral and are not used wittingly or unwittingly to cause social unrest or distort India’s much cherished democratic ideals.”
