A Delhi Assembly panel has issued a notice to Facebook's India Vice-president and Managing Director Ajit Mohan asking him to appear before it on September 15 in connection with complaints about the social media platform's alleged "deliberate and intentional inaction by Facebook to apply hate speech rules which allegedly led to disruption of peace across Delhi."
"Summon was issued on the basis of scathing depositions of the key witnesses as well as incriminating material submitted by them on record," an official statement stated on Saturday.
"We hereby summon you (Ajit Mohan) to appear before the committee on September 15, 2020 at 12 Noon at MLA Lounge- 1, Delhi Vidhan Sabha, for the purpose of recording your deposition on oath and participating in the proceedings carried out by the committee," Delhi Assembly's deputy secretary said in the notice sent on September 10.
The panel had earlier said that prima facie it had found that Facebook was complicit in aggravating the Delhi riots in northeast Delhi in February that left 53 dead and over 400 injured.
The panel, headed by AAP leader Raghav Chadha, is investigating the matter after it took cognisance of “several complaints” received from people based on an article published in the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on August 14. The report titled ‘Facebook hate speech rules collide with Indian politics’ stated that Facebook allegedly chose not to apply hate-speech rules and deliberately did not act against the such content ahead of Delhi riots.
Last month, Facebook had said its social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence and these policies were enforced globally without any regard to political affiliation.
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"We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position or party affiliation.
"While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," a Facebook spokesperson had said.
(With PTI Inputs)
