The Congress on Monday said Facebook was a “diabolical tool” in the hands of bigoted regimes to subvert democracy and demanded a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to investigate its nexus with the BJP in India.

Referring to the fresh revelations by a whistleblower, which suggested how the social media platform took no action against the BJP’s hate campaign, Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera said: “This only goes on to prove that Facebook is nothing but a subjugated vicious diabolical tool used by the ruling regime and its proxies to propagate bigotry, hate and fear in the minds of the oppressed and marginalised in India. The absolute callous attitude of the company towards the people of India is reflective in the fact that they spend 87 per cent of their misinformation budget policing English speaking audiences, whereas those audiences make up only 9 per cent of their base.”

The Congress asked both the Narendra Modi government and Facebook to answer these questions: “1. Despite knowing all of this, why hasn’t Facebook designated the RSS and the Bajrang Dal as ‘dangerous organisations’ based on its own internal reports? 2. While the government of India had been extremely proactive against Twitter citing social media safety compliance, why are they not uttering a word now?”

Demanding a JPC probe, Khera said: “The internal reports and recommendations of Facebook’s security team went against the recommendations of Facebook’s safety team; in so far as they prioritised commercial interests over safety of Indian citizens, and yet no action has been taken by the government, doesn’t this clearly implicate the presence of a quid pro quo?”

Describing the BJP as “all weather ally” of the Facebook, Khera recalled the murky episode involving former Facebook India head Ankhi Das, who was questioned by the parliamentary panel on the alleged bias in dealing with hate speeches, including her own internal postings detailing her explicit support for the ruling BJP. But, despite her resignation, the camaraderie and nexus between the BJP and Facebook never ended, he quipped.

Khera said: “Facebook’s safety team earlier in 2020 had concluded that the Bajrang Dal supported violence against minorities across the country; it was speculated that Facebook was on the verge of designating them as a ‘dangerous organisation’ and ban them from the platform. But, subsequent to a report by Facebook’s security team, which stated, ‘besides risking infuriating India’s ruling nationalist politicians, banning Bajrang Dal might precipitate physical attacks against Facebook personnel and facilities’, and thus, the social media giant caved in and prioritised their business over the safety of millions of Indians.”

The latest expose that prompted the Congress attack is the leaked research documents by whistleblower Frances Haugen, a 37yearold engineer who worked at Facebook. It showed Facebook knew they were not equipped to filter hate speech in Hindi through the course of the 2019 elections and the brutal Delhi riots, but they took no action. Their own internal reports have identified fake accounts with over a million impressions.

India is the largest market for Facebook with about 370 million users. An internal assessment by Facebook suggested that only 0.2 per cent of reported hate speech was being taken down. Khera said: “Many internal studies and reports by Facebook that have now been leaked explicitly suggest that it is groups and entities affiliated with the RSS, Bajrang Dal and their political proxy BJP that have been at the forefront of largescale extensive hate speech campaigns and hatemongering by spreading targeted misinformation against a particular community.”

The Congress insisted that any agency, any company, Indian or foreign, cannot undermine constitutional values, which govern this country. “Come what may, if Twitter does something wrong today, we will speak against Twitter and if the government does something wrong against any such company, we will again speak up. There is a rule of law, which governs the conduct of these companies. There is a rule of law, which governs my rights as a consumer of these platforms and Congress party will always stand by rule of law, by the Constitution, which governs our country.”