Venugopal, in his letter, had cited an appeared report in Time magazine and stated that the magazine revealed evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the BJP.
On Thursday, social media giant Facebook responded to Congress’ general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal’s letter, stressing that the company is ‘non-partisan’ and strives to ensure its platforms remain a space where people express themselves freely.
“We are non-partisan and strive to ensure our platforms remain a space where people express themselves freely. We take allegations of bias seriously and denounce hate and bigotry in all forms,” Facebook’s Trust and Safety Director, Neil Potts, said in a letter.
“On the question of hateful content by public figures, we want to assure you that our Community Standards prohibit attacks against people based on their protected characteristics, including religion, caste, ethnicity, and national origin. In line with our hate speech policy, we have removed and will continue to remove hateful content by public figures in India on our platforms,” the letter further stated.
The letter comes after KC Venugopal wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterating Congress’ demand for stopping the alleged nexus between the social media platform and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Venugopal, in his letter, had cited an appeared report in Time magazine and stated that the magazine revealed evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the BJP.
The standing committee on Information Technology, chaired by Shashi Tharoor, had also summoned Facebook to clarify the recent reports of bias towards the ruling party. The BJP, however, denied the allegations and stressed that even the pages supporting the party were taken down by Facebook.
As an independent media platform, we do not take advertisements from governments and corporate houses. It is you, our readers, who have supported us on our journey to do honest and unbiased journalism. Please contribute, so that we can continue to do the same in future.
