Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Indian PM Narendra Modi (CredIt: Narendra Modi Official Flickr Commons)
Nadine Osman
Social media giant Facebook has discriminatory practices for policing hate speech, fake news and offensive posts, particularly anti-Muslim content in India, according to leaked documents obtained by the Associated Press last month.
As early as 2019 and as recently as March 2021, Facebook internal memos document its struggles to curb abusive content by far-right Hindu nationalists on its platforms in India.
The ‘Facebook Papers’ leaked by the American data engineer and product manager Frances Haugen show that the company has been aware of the issue for years, calling into question its response. Critics have accused Facebook of indifference, particularly where members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been involved.
The social network’s top lobbying executive in India, Ankhi Das, reportedly opposed applying the company’s hate-speech rules to a politician from India’s prime minister Narendra Modi’s party who had in posts labelled Muslims as traitors, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Das told staff that applying hate-speech rules to politicians close to the BJP “would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.”
Modi reportedly used Facebook to his party’s electoral advantage and reporting from The Wall Street Journal last year cast doubt over whether Facebook selectively applied its policies against hate speech to avoid backlash.
Leaked documents indicate that staff recommendations for features, algorithms and concerns over viral “malcontent” were disregarded.
India was identified as a top “at-risk” country and Hindi and Bengali as priorities for “automation on violating hostile speech” by Facebook, but the company lacked sufficient linguists for monitoring to prevent fake news that sometimes led to violence.
Facebook said it has “invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali” which has resulted in a “reduced amount of hate speech that people see by half” in 2021.
“Hate speech against marginalised groups, including Muslims, is on the rise globally. So we are improving enforcement and are committed to updating our policies as hate speech evolves online,” a company spokesperson said. An open letter written to Facebook’s leadership by 11 employees, seen by Reuters, demands company leaders acknowledge and denounce “anti-Muslim bigotry” and ensure more policy consistency.
The letter also demanded that Facebook’s “policy team in India (and elsewhere) includes diverse representation.”
“It is hard not to feel frustrated and saddened by the incidents reported … We know we’re not alone in this. Employees across the company are expressing a similar sentiment,” said the letter. “The Muslim community at Facebook would like to hear from Facebook leadership on our asks.”
India’s main opposition Congress has called for a parliamentary panel to investigate alleged links between Facebook’s India team and the country’s ruling party.
