NEW DELHI: Delhi summoned Facebook’s India chief Saturday to answer allegations that the social media giant failed to remove dangerous content in its biggest market globally.
India is the US-based firm and its messaging service WhatsApp’s biggest market in terms of users, and the company is under pressure worldwide over the policing of hate speech.
Facebook has been embroiled in a huge row in India after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in August that the site failed to take down anti-Muslim comments by a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in order to protect its business interests.
The Delhi Assembly panel on peace and harmony said Saturday it would investigate evidence — described by the committee as “incriminating material on record” — submitted by four prominent journalists and digital rights activists.
The committee has asked Ajit Mohan, the managing director of Facebook India, to appear before it on September 15 to determine the “veracity of allegations” made by the group.
It follows US civil rights groups claiming last week that the firm had failed to address hateful content in India and demanded that its India policy chief, Ankhi Das, be removed.
Facebook has denied any political bias but admitted it has to do better to curb hate speech.
The panel — headed by Raghav Chadha, a lawmaker with a party rivalling Prime Minister’s Narendra Modi’s BJP — also said the firm should be probed over its “alleged role and complicity” in the sectarian Delhi riots in February.
Around 50 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the worst unrest in years between India’s majority Hindus and minority Muslims.
After the furor over the WSJ’s August report, Facebook blocked T. Raja Singh, a BJP lawmaker who had said Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar should be shot.
Singh told said he would fight the ban and that Facebook’s action was an attack on BJP.
Delhi summons top Indian Facebook official over hateful content
https://arab.news/2xx9p
Delhi summons top Indian Facebook official over hateful content
- Facebook has been embroiled in a huge row in India
- Social media giant denies any political bias but admitted it has to do better to curb hate speech
Foreign press group welcomes Israel court deadline on Gaza access
- Supreme Court set deadline for responding to petition filed by the Foreign Press Association to Jan. 4
- Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the Strip
JERUSALEM: The Foreign Press Association in Jerusalem on Sunday welcomed the Israeli Supreme Court’s decision to set January 4 as the deadline for Israel to respond to its petition seeking media access to Gaza.
Since the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, sparked by Palestinian militant group Hamas’s attack on Israel, Israeli authorities have prevented foreign journalists from independently entering the devastated territory.
Israel has instead allowed, on a case-by-case basis, a handful of reporters to accompany its troops into the blockaded Palestinian territory.
The Foreign Press Association (FPA), which represents hundreds of foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian territories, filed a petition to the supreme court last year, seeking immediate access for international journalists to the Gaza Strip.
On October 23, the court held a first hearing on the case, and decided to give Israeli authorities one month to develop a plan for granting access.
Since then the court has given several extensions to the Israeli authorities to come up with their plan, but on Saturday it set January 4 as a final deadline.
“If the respondents (Israeli authorities) do not inform us of their position by that date, a decision on the request for a conditional order will be made on the basis of the material in the case file,” the court said.
The FPA welcomed the court’s latest directive.
“After two years of the state’s delay tactics, we are pleased that the court’s patience has finally run out,” the association said in a statement.
“We renew our call for the state of Israel to immediately grant journalists free and unfettered access to the Gaza Strip.
“And should the government continue to obstruct press freedoms, we hope that the supreme court will recognize and uphold those freedoms,” it added.
An AFP journalist sits on the board of the FPA.
