Shashi Tharoor chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology. (File)
New Delhi:
Facebook India representatives will appear again before a parliamentary committee which considers issues like social media abuse, Congress’s Shashi Tharoor tweeted today after a two-plus hour meeting with the top executive of the social media giant. At the meeting — held amid allegations of Facebook’s bias towards the ruling BJP — Facebook India chief Ajit Mohan faced questions that included its hiring process and transparency.
Indicating that the meet remained inconclusive, Mr Tharoor, who chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, tweeted: “In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: we met for some three and a half hours and unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl w/ reps of Facebook”.
In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the ParliamentaryStandingCommittee on InformationTechnology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: we met for some three&a half hours & unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl w/ reps of @Facebook.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 2, 2020
Facebook has been facing criticism since US publication Wall Street Journal reported last month that the social media giant overlooked hate speech posted by leaders of the BJP and right wing groups. A second report said Facebook India policy executive Ankhi Das “made internal postings over several years” detailing her support for the ruling BJP and disparaging the Congress.
On Tuesday, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, accused Facebook employees of “on record abusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior cabinet ministers” in a letter to its chief Mark Zuckerberg.
Facebook India chief Ajit Mohan told MPS of the panel today that they were “never with the Congress or any party”.
