Facebook must demonstrate neutrality, demands Congress

New Delhi : The Congress on Wednesday urged Facebook to " demonstrate its neutrality" and outline steps to curb false, polarising and hate news allegedly spread on its platform.

The response comes a day after the resignation of Facebook India's controversial public policy head Ankhi Das. The party welcomed the change in Facebook India's leadership team, but stressed the matter would not be resolved by just changing one individual.

"Facebook must demonstrate its neutrality through a thorough revamp of its institutional processes and standard operating procedures (SOPs), so as to ensure foolproof checks and balances that cannot be tinkered by an individual's whims and political leanings," said Congress General Secretary (organisation), K.C. Venugopal.

"It must also outline the steps taken to curb false, polarising and hate news/content spread rampantly on its platform, threatening India's social harmony," he added.

After American newspaper Wall Street Journal had on August 14 reported substantively on the blatant biases of Facebook India's team headed by Ankhi Das, the Congress had raised the issue.

The newspaper had reported that Das and her political partisanship towards the ruling party and its leaders, by way of willful propagation, was spreading spread fake and hate news.

Subsequently, the Congress wrote two formal letters to the CEO of Facebook Inc, Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to look into the matter seriously. Facebook responded to the letter reiterating its neutrality and promising due action.

Facebook India's controversial public policy head Ankhi Das is leaving the company with immediate effect "to pursue her interest in public service", the social networking giant announced on Tuesday.

"Ankhi has decided to step down from her role in Facebook to pursue her interest in public service. Ankhi was one of our earliest employees in India and played an instrumental role in the growth of the company and its services over the last nine years," Ajit Mohan, Vice President and Managing Director, Facebook India, said in a statement.

IANS report with edits