The Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace and Harmony headed by Raghav Chadha has questioned Facebook India officials as part of its probe into the role of social media platforms in Delhi 2020 riots. Facebook India's Director Public Policy Shivnath Thukral and Director Legal GV Anand Bhushan appeared before the committee.
During the hearing, Chadha asked Thukral about the number of languages in which Facebook is available and the fact-checkers it has for each language. Thukral informed that Facebook India is available in 20 languages but supports fact checking only for 11 languages.
Thukral further stated that Facebook removes 97% of the problematic content that it detects on the platform. He added that a user complaint is acknowledged in 24 hours and the complaint is addressed within 14 days. Facebook, Thukral said, has removed 182,000 pieces of content in September.
“How Facebook has been used to further communal tensions during #DelhiRiots? Chairman of Peace & Harmony Committee @raghav_chadha questions Mark Zuckerberg’s role in Facebook India’s public policy,” Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) tweeted.
To this, the Facebook official replied, “We are structured in a manner where we have enough checks and balances to coordinate across the world.”
Queried by Chadha as to how many registered users of Facebook are there across the world and in India, the official responded by saying that "over a billion registered users are there, out of which around 400 million users are from India".
To this, Chadha said, "That means around 40 per cent market of Facebook belongs to India, then the CEO must closely look at one market that gives him 40 per cent of the total outcome." He also asked as to what actions does Facebook take on ‘misinformation campaign,’ organised hate speech, and its role in inciting riots? Is that content removed or not?
The committee said that it will again call the Facebook officials for the hearing and will make a decision on it.
The Peace and Harmony Committee (Committee) was constituted by the Delhi Legislative Assembly in the aftermath of the violence that took place in the northeast area of Delhi between groups supporting and opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Earlier, the Supreme Court had passed an order stating that the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony committee has the right to question Facebook India officials.