Delhi Panel Proceedings on Facebook's 'Hateful Content' Begin Tomorrow

A Delhi Assembly committee on peace and harmony will initiate on Tuesday proceedings in connection with complaints about the Facebook's alleged "deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content" in India, according to an official statement issued on Monday.

The development comes in the backdrop of a report published in the Wall Street Journal recently, citing interviews with unnamed Facebook insiders to claim that one of its senior India policy executives intervened in internal communication to stop a permanent ban on a BJP MLA from Telangana after he allegedly made communally charged posts.

According to the statement, after careful deliberation on allegations levelled in the complaints received, the panel, chaired by AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, has decided to take immediate cognisance of this issue.

"Summons have been sent necessitating the appearance of certain expert witnesses, specifically Paranjoy Guha Thakurta and Nikhil Pahwa along with other witnesses for participating in the relevant proceedings," it stated.

It added that the committee aims to redress the issue at the earliest and therefore, the proceedings shall be expedited in order to put this issue to its logical conclusion.

Earlier, Facebook had said its social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence and these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation.

"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.