Facebook India on Tuesday skipped the hearing of a Delhi Assembly committee, reasoning that their representatives had already appeared before a parliamentary panel. In response, the Delhi Assembly hit back by saying that a "final warning" would be delivered to the social networking giant over their no-show.
Facebook India on Tuesday skipped the hearing of a Delhi Assembly committee, reasoning that their representatives had already appeared before a parliamentary panel. In response, the Delhi Assembly hit back by saying that a "final warning" would be delivered to the social networking giant over their no-show.
On Tuesday, the hearing of the Delhi Assembly's "Peace and Harmony" committee was already underway when a written response from Facebook India arrived. The response conveyed the social networking giant's reasoning for not showing up at the hearing, providing that Facebook India executives had already deposed before the committee of MPs at the parliamentary panel earlier this month.
Facebook India also asked the Delhi Assembly committee to withdraw the summons because the parliamentary panel was already looking into the matter.
Not too happy about this, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Raghav Chaddha, who heads the Delhi Assembly committee, said that fresh summons would be issued and if Facebook India still did not comply they "should be forced to appear through coercive actions".
The Delhi Legislative Assembly`s Peace and Harmony Committee had summoned Facebook India Deputy Chairman and Managing Director Ajit Mohan over complaints alleging willful inaction in enforcing rules to curb hate speech. According to the committee, this allegedly disturbed the peace in Delhi.
"With regard to the strong evidence presented on behalf of the witnesses, the committee believes that Facebook should be charged as a co-accused in the Delhi riots investigation," the AAP MLA had earlier said.
The committee, with its chairman Chadha, has also examined four important witnesses. These include eminent writer Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and digital rights activist Nikhil Pahwa.
According to the committee, Thakurta made a statement that Facebook is not as secular and content-neutral as it claims to be. Also, Facebook has been accused of having an "unholy nexus".
The committee`s attention was also drawn to the process of selective implementation of Facebook policies in the Black Lives Matter case in a country like the United States.
Chadha said they had received a number of complaints alleging that the Facebook authorities concerned willfully ignored material allegedly spreading hatred in India.
After careful deliberations on the allegations made in the complaints, the committee took quick notice of the issue and initiated proceedings. The proceedings today were supposed to be live-streamed to make the functioning of the committee transparent and to establish public confidence.
(With agency inputs)
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