'Hate Promotes Virality, Virality Increases Revenue' : Delhi Assembly Seeks Facebook Records Of Complaints About Communal Posts Prior To Riots

The Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace and Harmony constituted to probe into the Delhi riots that took place in February 2020 grilled senior executives of Facebook India on Thursday for its alleged role in failing to curb provocative and inflammatory content that led to the riots. The Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of NCT of Delhi in March 2020 had constituted a Committee on Peace and Harmony to recommend suitable measures to defuse the situation and restore harmony among religious communities, linguistic communities or social groups.Facebook India's (Meta platforms) Public Policy Director Shivnath Thukral and its Associate General Counsel Saanjh Purohit deposed before the Committee chaired by Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Raghav Chadha on Thursday. Representatives of Facebook India were first summoned to appear before the panel on November 2, but the hearing was later postponed to November 18 on a request from the company. The proceedings of the Committee which were live streamed on Thursday were significant as the public for the first time witnessed law makers in India question officials of the social media giant over a host of pertinent issues- the definition of 'hate speech' adopted by the company, its system of fact checking, underlying commercial interests and the religious diversity of its employees. Importantly, the Committee asked Facebook India to furnish records of users' reports (complaints) on the content posted on the platform one month prior and two months after the occurrence of Delhi riots in February 2020 which had claimed over 53 lives. The Supreme Court in July this year had refused to quash the summons issued to Facebook India Managing Director Ajit Mohan by the Peace and Harmony Committee his appearance in an enquiry related to the Delhi Riots. "The capital of the country can ill-afford any repetition of the occurrence and thus, the role of Facebook in this context must be looked into by the powers that be. It is in this background that the Assembly sought to constitute a peace and harmony committee – whether it has the legislative competence or not is an aspect we will deal with it under the relevant head. The Assembly being a local legislative and governance body, it cannot be said that their concerns were misconceived or illegitimate," the judgment had stated. However, the Court had held that the Delhi Assembly's enquiry cannot encroach into "prohibited domains" of law and order and criminal prosecution, as they are subjects under the domain of the Union Government. Thus, liberty had been granted to the representatives of the social media intermediary to deny answering any question by the Committee if it falls within the prohibited domains. We cannot be subjected to unfair trials based on selectively leaked documents: Facebook India At the outset, Thukral acknowledged that as a company that connects over 3 billion people across the world, people have a right to hold them accountable. However, he expressed reservations to the fact that the company in recent times has been subjected to unfair scrutiny. "As a consequential platform we believe that we should be scrutinised. Good faith criticism helps us get better but we cannot be subjected to unfair trials based on selectively leaked documents, which paint a false picture of our company. The debates mischaracterise our intent, the work we have done around the safety of our users and unfortunately paints a very prejudiced picture about the company", he stated. Enumerating further on the measures undertaken to abate hate speech and misinformation, the Facebook representative further informed that 13 billon dollars had been invested since 2016 in this regard. It was further stated that nearly 40 thousand people are employed by the company to ensure safety of its users. "We set the standard for transparency with our enforcement reports released both globally and locally herein in India. We have also pioneered the Oversight Board as a model of self -regulation. We have empowered users with tools to control who they interact with on our platforms. We have continuously built tools or made product changes to reduce friction and curb the spread of problematic content", he averred further. Religious diversity in the company Enquiring about the religious diversity of the company's employees, Chadha questioned Facebook's representatives, "What is the religious diversity as far as the composition of these teams are concerned? The public policy team first and then of course the overall employee strength of Facebook India?" To this, Thukral responded that since Indian laws do not permit differentiation on the basis of religious affiliation, such questions are not asked during the process of hiring of employees. However Chadha quizzed further,"I fully agree with you as far as hiring is concerned that should certainly not be a criteria and I am sure that is not that criteria. But now that you have hired these people just...

'Hate Promotes Virality, Virality Increases Revenue' : Delhi Assembly Seeks Facebook Records Of Complaints About Communal Posts Prior To Riots

Aaratrika Bhaumik

Tags