A report in the Wall Street Journal, quoting unnamed current and former Facebook officials, alleges a top Facebook India official Ankhi Das opposed taking down hate speech posts by a BJP MLA over worries it would damage the company's business prospects in India. But many in India think she is a willing puppet of the Modi government and should be fired.

NEW  DELHI - A top Facebook official in India is willing be a puppet of the Narendra Modi government as she  opposed applying the social media platform’s hate speech rules to at least one Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politician and other “Hindu nationalist individuals and groups”, according to a new report published by The Wall Street Journal.

This was despite the fact that the content posted by these individuals or groups had been “flagged by Facebook internally for promoting violence”.

The Wall Street Journal report says that Ankhi Das, who is Facebook’s top public policy executive in India, opposed applying hate speech rules to the BJP’s T. Raja Singh out of fear of ruining the company’s relationship with the ruling party. But many in India think she is a willing puppet of the Modi government and should be fired.

Singh is the saffron party’s lone MLA in the Telangana assembly and is notorious for making communally provocative statements.

“Ms. Das, whose job also includes lobbying India’s government on Facebook’s behalf, told staff members that punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country…,” the report said, quoting unnamed current and former company officials.

 “The current and former Facebook employees said Ms. Das’s intervention on behalf of Mr. Singh is part of a broader pattern of favoritism by Facebook toward Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu hard-liners,” it added.

A company spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that while Das had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Singh a “dangerous individual”, her opposition was not the sole factor that determined whether the BJP politician should remain on the platform.

The spokesperson added that Facebook is still considering whether it will ban Singh.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Das’s team also took “no action” after BJP politicians posted content accusing Muslims of intentionally spreading the coronavirus, plotting against the nation and making a noise about “love jihad” – the term the Sangh parivar uses to describe a mythical conspiracy by Muslims men seeking to seduce and marry Hindu women in order to convert them to Islam.

In addition to this, unnamed former employees quoted by the US newspaper claim that Das had also provided the BJP with “favourable treatment on election-related issues”.

 “In April of last year, days before voting began in India’s general election, Facebook announced it had taken down inauthentic pages tied to Pakistan’s military and the Congress party, the BJP’s main rival party. But it didn’t disclose it also removed pages with false news tied to the BJP, because Ms. Das intervened,” the report said, quoting unnamed former Facebook employees.

According to the media report, several posts by Singh and BJP MP Anantkumar Hegde, which were filled with anti-Muslim rhetoric, were not deleted by Facebook until it was brought to their attention by Wall Street Journal reporters.

“Facebook deleted some of Mr. Singh’s postings after the Journal asked about them. It said Mr. Singh no longer is permitted to have an official, verified account, designated with a blue check mark badge,” the report notes.

 “While Twitter has suspended Mr. Hegde’s account as a result of such [anti-Muslim] posts, prompting him to call for an investigation of the company, Facebook took no action until the Journal sought comment from the company about his “Corona Jihad” posts. Facebook removed some of them on Thursday. Mr. Hegde didn’t respond to a request for comment.”

With regard to the WSJ story, a Facebook spokesperson noted that the company enforces its policy “without regard to anyone’s political position”.  “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,” the spokesperson said.

Following disclosing of Das’s name, there has been swift reaction against her on social media and on Monday she filed a report with police that she is getting death threats.

Das lodged a complaint with the South Delhi police on Sunday night stating that she has received threats on social media. Identifying some Twitter accounts in the complaint, she has claimed that there was a threat to her life.

Her complaint comes at a time when several opposition parties and concerned citizens have raised questions regarding Das’s conduct.

Despite Das filing a FIR, South Delhi deputy commissioner of police Atul Thakur added that no FIR has been registered but the police have started investigating her complaint.

The Delhi legislative assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee on Monday said it will summon Facebook officials, including Das, to discern if there is any role or complicity of officials of the social media giant in the orchestration of riots in Northeast Delhi.

The committee, which is headed by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raghav Chadha, said that it has received multiple complaints about Facebook’s “alleged deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content in India for vested reasons.”

The committee said in view of reports that Facebook allegedly to turned a blind eye to hate speech and communal hatred, it is compelled to take immediate notice and get to the root of this issue. “The committee will review to painstakingly discern if there is any role or complicity of the Facebook official in the orchestration of Delhi riots,” Chadha said on Twitter.

“Summons are set to be sent for the appearance of the concerned officials of Facebook and more importantly, Ankhi Das, in due course to ensure their presence before the committee for participating in the relevant proceeding and the committee shall convene its meeting this week to initiate the proceedings forthwith,” the committee said in a release.

“It has been alleged in the complaints that the Facebook, despite its comprehensive policies and regulations on curbing unabated dissemination of hateful and offensive content, has been turning a blind eye to mass manufacturing and propagation of vile, hateful communal content which is not only bad in taste but have potential to erupt violence and riot-like situation,” the release added.

Meanwhile, the parliamentary standing committee on information technology is also likely to look into the WSJ report. “I will certainly look into the issue and the committee will seek the views of Facebook,” committee chairman Shashi Tharoor told the Indian Express.

Facebook has been busy recently shutting down rightwing, racist and violence groups from its platforms after corporate heat resulting in billion of advertising dollars lost in the process. More heat needs to be applied to it’s operations in India and other parts of the world where it is facing accusations of collusion with oppressive local governments.