India: Wall Street Journal report further exposes ruling party BJP-Facebook nexus and lack of consistent action to block hate speech
Autor(a): Vir Sanghvi, Hindustan Times, Publicado en: 17 August 2020
"The sovereign state of Facebook", 18 August 2020
The suggestion that Facebook allows its platform to carry hate speech and messages that promote violence is not new. Nor is the allegation that in India, its largest market, Facebook is actually helping the BJP to promote the party’s interests...
The Wall Street Journal, the respected and credible American newspaper, carried a detailed report that not only repeated these allegations but gave specific instances.
...Facebook’s policing staff were told by Facebook’s “top public policy executive in the country”, Ankhi Das, that she “opposed applying the hate speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindus nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting and participating in violence.”
This might have been because of Ms Das’s own views (the Journal quotes disturbing comments from her Facebook page) but she “told staff members that punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.”
...So why would Facebook want to help the BJP so much that it would go against the advice of its own policing department and continue to keep vicious hate speech on its platform?
The short answer is: money.
...Facebook is, for all practical purposes, behaving like a sovereign state, doing deals with governments and forming its own alliances. It is worth much more than the GDP of many countries and it is accountable to no one...
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