The Delhi Assembly has given 16 more days to Facebook to depose before a committee probing the company’s alleged role in communal riots in the capital that claimed 53 lives last year.
However, questions have been raised on the delay in the summons after the Supreme Court permitted it. Also, no executive of the company has been named, unlike last year when its country head had been specifically summoned.
The Indian arm of the social media giant is being probed for alleged culpability for allowing the spread of hate speech that aggravated rioting in North East Delhi.
Facebook’s managing director for India, Ajit Mohan, avoided the summons last year by pleading before the Supreme Court that the Assembly of the Union Territory did not have jurisdiction over law and order. The court dismissed the plea in July.
The hearing of the Delhi Assembly’s Committee on Peace and Harmony was initially scheduled for Tuesday, but has now been deferred to November 18 on a request from Facebook.
The summons sent last week to Facebook’s Indian subsidiary based in Mumbai asks the company to email the names of its representatives who would appear before the committee, thereby giving Mohan a window to not appear in person.
Apar Gupta, executive director of the Internet Freedom Foundation, told The Telegraph: “There almost seems to be a lethargy in the institutional processes regarding such inquiries because it seems to only match media cycles where there is a high degree of public attention directed towards any such hearing, rather than regular conduct and schedule being drawn up….”