Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday asked if Facebook is “lying” to India and its Parliament about the contents posted by members of the Bajrang Dal , a member of Sangh Parivar, on the social media platform.
Mr. Gandhi took to Twitter to point out alleged contradictory positions taken by the social media company on Bajrang Dal contents.
“Facebook US says Bajrang Dal content is offensive and should be banned. Facebook India tells our Parliamentary panel that Bajrang Dal content is not offensive. Is Facebook lying to India and its Parliament?” asked Mr. Gandhi on Twitter.
The Congress leader tagged screenshot of an investigation carried out by TheWallStreet Journal (WSJ) last week in which it mentioned how supporters of the Bajrang Dal in June had posted videos of an attack at a Pentecostal Church in Delhi.
The company’s safety team had flagged off concerns about the Bajrang Dal supporting violence and concluded that it qualified to be a “dangerous organisation” and attracted a ban, the WSJ’s investigation had said.
But Facebook Inc. did not remove the contents as it could “endanger business prospects and its staff,” the WSJ added.
On Wednesday, however, Facebook India’s head Ajit Mohan and the company’s Public Policy head, Shivnath Thukral, told the Parliamentary Committee on Information Technology (IT) that contents didn’t violate their social media policies and didn’t necessitate a ban.
Chairman of the parliamentary panel on IT, Shashi Tharoor, and Congress MP Karti Chidambaram had referred to the WSJ report when Facebook India’s team had deposed before the standing committee.
BJP’s Nishikant Dubey had also reportedly asked Facebook India executives as to why it didn’t call the WSF report as fake if it didn’t violate the company’s social media policies.
