Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech

https://time.com/5883993/india-facebook-hate-speech-bjp/

171 79 6 years ago

roenxi• 6 years ago

It is a strategically risky move for Facebook to take an active role in shaping India's political landscape. I imagine that the Indian population might object to American companies deciding what is and isn't appropriate to discuss.

Barrin92• 6 years ago

Inciting ethnic violence was one of the official reasons why TikTok was banned in the country, so surely nobody can object to applying the same Indian standards to Facebook communication, right? Not to mention India already has hate speech laws, so I don't see how Facebook enforcing them on their platform would be anyhting else than complying with... Indian law.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_India

ra7• 6 years ago

Inciting ethnic violence was one of the official reasons why TikTok was banned in the country

Source? Tiktok ban was a geopolitical play due to recent India-China tensions and the reason given was "national security". Here's the official press release: https://pib.gov.in/PressReleseDetailm.aspx?PRID=1635206

saagarjha• 6 years ago

People incite ethnic violence regardless of the platform they use to spread their message. Hate speech laws in India just seem to be a convenient way for the government to crack down on websites and services it doesn’t like at arbitrary times.

ashleshbiradar6• 6 years ago

Indian Population doesn't take digital world seriously, and majority have no digital literacy, so it is difficult for that to happen.

newen3• 6 years ago

Hard to take this comment seriously in a country where about 50% have access to the internet, very likely 100% of influential people have access to the internet, and very likely 100% of people are 1 degree of separation from someone who has access to the internet.

Mediterraneo10• 6 years ago

"I imagine that the Indian population might object to American companies..."

Does the average Indian person even consciously reflect on Facebook being an American company? I get the impression that for so much of the developing world where Facebook/Whatsapp/Instagram are just about the only internet people know (because these sites don’t count against their mobile data, because they don’t even have e-mail and this is the only way they communicate with people, etc.), people don’t even think about where all this infrastructure comes from. It’s just “the internet”, and it exists with no particular origin or nationality like the air they breathe or the rain that falls from the sky.

actuator3• 6 years ago

I don't think this would be true just for developing world. Till the whole Tiktok-Trump thing started, did teens using Tiktok even knew where the owner was from. It has an English name, English language localization.

edge17• 6 years ago

This is true even for the American population

im3w1l• 6 years ago

It's easier for Facebook to donate to "charities" that smears its enemies as on home turf.

vkou• 6 years ago

Facebook is no stranger to picking political winners and losers. In 2016, it seems to have bet the farm on a Trump victory (By being, and then continuing to be incredibly lax on enforcing its rules against his account.)

It knows which side its bread is buttered, and is not going to rock the boat against a sitting president.

actuator3• 6 years ago

FB's motivation at the end of day is money, they will cater to demands of any ruling org. For long time Zuck was doing trips to PRC to cozy up to CCP.

I went through the article and while I don't rule out the possibility of ideological bias in an org, it seems that they are reaching for it a bit. Like the first instance itself that was mentioned in the article.

Facebook said in a statement to TIME. “We failed to remove upon initial review, which was a mistake on our part.”

I am not a FB employee but if they have a two step process for removing some posts and say the second step in some cases is creating an issue on the ticketing system. By Occam's razor the simplest explanation can be easily that what FB is saying is the truth, in mid/big companies, issue trackers can easily be the places where things can go to die.

I have personally seen issues being left unaddressed for years. It can happen, and if we pick selective instances to paint a story, it might not be the complete picture.

Though as I mentioned earlier as well, they very well can have a bias if they have hired individuals with the same ideological background which is true for all types of orgs including old media houses.

commoner• 6 years ago

There's more concrete evidence of Facebook's political bias in the Wall Street Journal report mentioned in the article.

Yet Mr. Singh, a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party, is still active on Facebook and Instagram, where he has hundreds of thousands of followers. The company’s top public-policy executive in the country, Ankhi Das, opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence, said the current and former employees.
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, Facebook’s biggest global market by number of users, the current and former employees said.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-hate-speech-india-poli...

dheera• 6 years ago

I've always wondered why Facebook's role in the US elections is such a hotly debated topic but Facebook's role in the elections of all the other democracies in the world is not touched upon at all.

pjc50• 6 years ago

Well, that's because news coverage and forums are very heavily biased towards reporting on the US. Even in non-US countries.

There has been some discussion of the effects of Cambridge Analytica on the Brexit referendum and UK elections. However, in the UK, traditional media ownership and cronyism is more of a serious problem.

retrac• 6 years ago

It's certainly a topic for discussion in the other democracies. Before COVID-19 sent everything haywire, Canada's parliament was holding sessions on the question of American electoral interference on social media.

Once it's back on track, Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook's management have a good chance of having arrest warrants issued if they don't start actually testifying and cooperating.

whoevercares• 6 years ago

Most people hold double/triple standards

jakelazaroff• 6 years ago

This is a specious argument. Facebook already takes an active role in shaping India's political landscape, via algorithmic promotion of posts.

thewhitetulip2• 6 years ago

Indian population is brainwashed by the party with which FB sided

How you ask? The media commonly called as Modi Media blames EVERYTHING on the opposing parties

India is#1 in corona casesper day, who is to blame? Congress. Why? They are soreading fear!

And now they've started using a suicide by a Film actor to stop corona news altogether.

If you look at Hindi and English news they're focused on spreading conspiracies about a dead guy and his girlfriend like gf smoked drugs etc

pagan42• 6 years ago

Indian population is brainwashed by the party with which FB sided

Just because the Indian population has realized what rubbish the Indian Congress party, it's affiliates were ( basically a KGB satellite) doesn't mean they are brainwashed.

Just because Indian population doesn't like the game where all the money is for select few and rest are all poor ( communism) doesn't mean it's brainwashed.

Just because Indian population doesn't reward the those who refuse to condemn the ethnic cleansing of pagans/non monotheists doesn't mean it's brainwashed.

Just people you can label Indian population as brainwashed doesn't mean it is.

sbmthakur3• 6 years ago

Yes, and it doesn't go well. Twitter(India) was summoned by a parliamentary panel when a group accused them of being biased against right-wing accounts.

ffpip3• 6 years ago

India is a very lucrative market for FB and other companies.

1 billion people, 2 billion eyes. No privacy laws, can easily share and sell data, govt is in the hands of Reliance (in which FB, Google and others are all investing a lot), most Indians are just getting used to the vast internet and are easily tricked.

indogooner• 6 years ago

Ideally they should have some morality to put basic human rights and safety above profits. Even from long term perspective if they continue to ignore hate speech against Islam on their platform I am sure they would lose a lot of users.

zozbot234• 6 years ago

'Islam' is not a monolithic block, and we shouldn't represent it as such. Most hate speech against Muslims or varieties of Islam comes from Islamist fundamentalists and radicals themselves, not anyone with ties to any "ruling party" in India or in the Western world.

ffpip3• 6 years ago

They won't. You don't know the kind of nationalism that exists in India. Just check out twitter.com/explore every night via an Indian IP. It's full of hate speech against Hindus and muslims. Some random guy/girl tweets some shit against a religion. All the media/bots/politicians jump on it and blame it on each other. Everybody is outraged by tiny things, they don't know to ignore things.

Indian media thrives on these things. Half the nation is jobless/students . Most accounts are paid bots.

The only good thing is that the situation are getting better, as the older gen goes away slowly.

sbmthakur3• 6 years ago

How is government in the hands of Reliance? That's just a low denominator allegation unless you can furnish evidence.

known• 6 years ago

"Who's right doesn't matter, who has the power does"--Thucydides https://www.quora.com/Which-caste-is-looting-India/answers/2...

RcouF1uZ4gsC• 6 years ago

Removing posts by elected officials is running really close to foreign interference in domestic affairs. Given the history of the East India Company, I am sure India is especially sensitive to foreign companies trying to influence or curtail the speech of their elected officials.

smt882• 6 years ago

Removing posts by elected officials is running really close to foreign interference in domestic affairs.

No, it's not. If anything, it's opting out of interfering in domestic affairs.

Facebook is not an official channel. The elected official has many other platforms, including the country's media, that will publish their message. They can create a blog if they want.

If Facebook is the only viable channel for reaching a large part of the electorate, the core issue is having only that one channel. You solve it by forcing competition, not by stifling Facebook's right to decide what they want to allow on their platform.

I deeply loathe Facebook and think they're undermining democracy in every country, but there should never be a way for a government to force a publisher to distribute an ideology that the publisher disagrees with.

dominotw2• 6 years ago

stifling Facebook's right to decide what they want to allow on their platform.

Is indian govt really proposing this though? who is stifling their right?

pkphilip• 6 years ago

Facebook's actions in India are absolutely despicable. The head of policy at Facebook in India is a radicalized member of the Indian rightwing and recently put up a post stating that Muslims are a "degenerate community" and was forced to apologise just a couple of days ago because of pressure on FB from their employees.

She gave a half hearted apology. Facebook should have immediately suspended her or sacked her:

https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/facebook-ankhi-das-anti-...

She and her sister (who is a politically connected to the ruling BJP party) have publicly been hobnobbing with the BJP and have actively been involved in propaganda. https://twitter.com/SaketGokhale/status/1294653379046596608

During the recent riots in Delhi where many died, the incitement of violence was by a member of the ruling party but has taken no action against Kapil Mishra's account which is still active:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=283365149510764

His account is still active and he still continues to try and make the Hindus fight the Muslims:

https://www.facebook.com/youth4justice

ashleshbiradar6• 6 years ago

Whatsapp is also used extensively to share misinformation and hateful content, fueling mob violence and hate, especially targetting the minorities across the country.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/09/whats...

besides that, the ruling party actively uses whatsapp for political reasons, with it's infamous "It Cell" known for manufacturing fake news. https://theprint.in/politics/9500-it-cell-heads-72000-whatsa...

So much so, that the current Home Minsiter of India, Amit Shah was seen in public bragging about the power of the IT Cell to "We can keep making messages go viral, whether they are real or fake, sweet or sour" https://www.thequint.com/news/politics/amit-shah-real-fake-c...

envy2• 6 years ago

So, I completely understand the concerns about moderation on Facebook itself.

But what would you actually have anyone do about WhatsApp? It's an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, and the whole purpose of end-to-end encryption (which, last I checked, HN was generally in favour of) is that there is no way to surveil or moderate the content of someone's communications.

claudeganon• 6 years ago

I don’t think people have realized that Zuckerberg’s intent is to be the Rupert Murdoch of the 21st century. He’s no ally of liberal society or democracy.

dontcarethrow2• 6 years ago

Investors don't mind, users don't seem to care. Can we pinpoint why it is 'bad'? People are making money, signs that the product brings 'value' to society. I am young, how much of the world has Murdoch influenced? Has it all been bad? Sounds like a player that made it. Do we change the game in this case?

statguy• 6 years ago

Imagine a White person, who is the head of the organization in a country sharing a post that African Americans are a "degenerate community". In any western country, the person would not only be promptly sacked, but would also become untouchable in mainstream organizations.

The Indian politics and judiciary have been compromised by right wing Hindu nationalists and it is impossible to expect anything from them. However, I expected better from Facebook. In a western country Facebook wouldn't think twice about firing any employee who shared such a post.

jariel3• 6 years ago

America is not in a cold war nuclear standoff with an large African nation with whom it shares a border, whereupon millions of it's own citizens may believe that by virtue of their culture then land they live upon should be in said 'African nation' instead of America.

Point being, even though it's terrible ... it's really, really different.

scarface742• 6 years ago

See.

“The Southern Strategy” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy

Dog Whistle Politics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog-whistle_(politics)

wtmt• 6 years ago

This can only be solved when more and more people understand the threats not just for the present, but for the future.

What Facebook and WhatsApp have enabled are convenient and useful for those in power. So while there may probably be some words here and there, we can’t expect a lot of change on the ground.

Disappointingly, the Indian Supreme Court is also lethargic and chooses to look at more trivial matters than give importance to things that could affect the freedom and political landscape for generations — examples are the Aadhaar petitions, cases against the electoral bonds and other matters not being heard for years. The court may actually find merit in holding this commenter in contempt for criticizing it, as if the judiciary is somehow sacred and beyond any criticism (anyone interested can search online for recent news on what the court is doing).

The effect of “absolute power corrupts absolutely” is seen in many corners!

luckylion2• 6 years ago

What Facebook and WhatsApp have enabled are convenient and useful for those in power.

I'm sure they are, but are they more useful than what was before? Facebook & Co have some random element, it's not a one-way-communication device like classic media (TV, radio, newspapers) are/were.

The government has much less control over Facebook. You can't just go in and take it over like you could with a radio station, you can either use it and accept that others can as well, or you can block it in your country, but then you can't use it either.

rbecker2• 6 years ago

I'm sure they are, but are they more useful than what was before? [..] TV, radio, newspapers

False dichotomy. Lets not skip over irc, xmpp, and all sorts of free, variously encrypted communication platforms that Facebook muscled out.

scarface742• 6 years ago

What Facebook and WhatsApp have enabled are convenient and useful for those in power.

The other side of the coin is that people being able to record and stream police in real time has exposed corruption in the justice system that the mainstream media has been ignoring for decades. The MSM use to never question whether police were being honest.

CMGPwned• 6 years ago

"Shreya Singhal v. Union of India shields Twitter from any liability for failing to take down content unless a court order is passed asking it to do the same."

source: https://internetfreedom.in/joint-letter-to-twitter-about-rem...

rbecker2• 6 years ago

Those are better free speech protections than in Germany, where after a mere complaint (not court order) platforms are liable for up to 5 million euro if they fail to remove illegal posts within 7 days, and "obviously illegal" posts within 24 hours: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Enforcement_Act

tsjq2• 6 years ago

Also, FB's proximity to the mega corporation that's known to be very friendly to the ruling party. FB's WhatsApp pay getting clearances / approvals soon after they made a large payment to Jio Platforms.

Timeline:

26Nov2019: India puts WhatsApp's impending payments service on ice due to data localisation fracas. Both the security breach by Pegasus malware and WhatsApp's reluctance to adhere to India's data localisation norms have caused it to sit on the sidelines of one of the hottest digital payments markets in the world. [1] [1] https://www.zdnet.com/article/india-puts-whatsapps-impending...

24Apr2020: Facebook is spending $5.7 billion to capitalize on India's internet boom. [2] [2] https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/22/tech/facebook-india-relia...

08June2020: WhatsApp gets a raw deal from India in payments. WhatsApp needs a nod from the National Payments Corporation of India to throw open the switch. [3]. [3]https://cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/enterprise-ser...

16June2020: WhatsApp launches payments service, 2 yrs after it began testing in India. [4] [4]https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/whats...

03Aug WhatsApp a step closer to pay play. [5] [5]https://www.livemint.com/industry/banking/whatsapp-a-step-cl...

04Aug2020: WhatsApp Pay has now met all data localisation rules, NPCI tells RBI [6] [6]https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/news...

05Aug2020: 'NPCI gave ICICI Bank go ahead for WhatsApp Pay in June', RBI informs SC [7] [7]https://www.medianama.com/2020/08/223-npci-approves-whatsapp...

ashleshbiradar6• 6 years ago

Here's a report by Equality Labs about Facebook India and Hate speech.

https://www.equalitylabs.org/facebookindiareport

srean4• 6 years ago

Thanks, that was quite eye opening. I myself have received and continue to receive many such on WA.

jedimind• 6 years ago

That's extremely disturbing how can they justify banning tik tok for inciting ethnic violence yet give facebook a free pass?

srean4• 6 years ago

Possibly because FB and WA have been toeing the party line (as it has been toeing the Trump line in the US). TikTok might have been less than sycophantic towards the ruling party here in India.

It helps that one can use it to play to their gallery by appearing to stick it to China. There had been recent incursions by the Chinese well inside Indian borders. The ruling party has been trying to cover that up and needed some token resistance to showcase.

Given the mutually cuddly relations between PM and Zuckerberg, the ban of TikTok is not really that surprising.

jariel3• 6 years ago

It's a geopolitical issue, probably not one of hate speech.

India is not concerned about US Government spying on them, so much.

All large Chinese companies have strong ties to the CCP (they have internal staffers who are party members, essentially acting as internal party oversight). Ergo, TT is definitely an organ of the state. It's just a matter of 'how much' in practicality.

So TT gets the ban.

praveen9920• 6 years ago

Hate speech is very common in Indian social media.

Also, This is not just a problem with Facebook India, Even Twitter India's heads have very close ties to India's ruling party.

actuator3• 6 years ago

Are you sure about this? From what I gather the current ruling dispensation in India is opposite of left, and Jack Dorsey has stated in the past about Twitter having left leaning bias. [1] Might not translate to their India operations but I strongly doubt it wouldn't.

[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2018/08/19/twitter...

newen3• 6 years ago

BJP, India’s right wing party, has super majority seats in parliament and looks to be the only relevant party in the foreseeable future. So I think if they want to deal with India, they’d have to deal with BJP regardless of their political leanings.

dragonsh2• 6 years ago

For failure of legislation, judiciary, administration, media in India to protect minority, Facebook is not the primary actor. Indeed minorities failed to get support from top courts in India where habeas corpus (the most fundamental basic right of Freedom in Indian constitution) litigations are pending for over 1 year and constantly being postponed, and the topmost court is busy prosecuting a lawyer with urgency for a tweet. His main offence is to use public interest litigation to help minorities, question govt and courts and bring to the front the tyranny of majoritarian politics of suppression. He is in cross-hairs of the current govt, so it’s one another way to silence him from questioning govt or courts for decisions.

Agree that Facebook should act decisively to say no to things which incites violence and suppress the voice of minority.

The least it can do is to remove people immediately in the company who appear in slightest to promote or ignore hate and violent information on platform resulting in loss of life. Here Facebook is duty bound to act internally within its company to make sure it’s staff are responsible for their actions. I don’t see any of this indeed the whole Facebook team in India who did it are promoted based on research in WSJ and this article. Getting cozy with richest man closer to right wing is just to secure profits and market at the expense of principles.

Also right wing politics in India enjoys a substantial support, especially the Hitler style (reflected in many govt decisions). Facebook is just reflection of what’s in the society at present. Majority of the people are happy that a temple built will make India no. 1 in the world, talks and real actions on COVID-19 has become boring and not important as it inches towards no. 1 in the world for COVID-19 infections.

heavyset_go• 6 years ago

* Facebook is just reflection of what’s in the society at present.*

Facebook is a company that makes a profit off of engagement, even if that engagement is driven by hate. Facebook alone chooses what they promote on their platform. It is not some kind of mirror that just reflects what goes on in society, it is a company that distorts the truth, outrages and pushes paid propaganda on its users in order to turn a profit.

dragonsh2• 6 years ago

That’s the reason mentioned in my comment that Facebook chose profits and market over principles in India based on WSJ research and this article.

In India they choose the side of the govt, political party and an ideology, it’s again a reflection of the kind of staff managing Facebook in India and although they are duty bound to punish such staff they rewarded them and still defending them to secure the market and profits.

sbmthakur3• 6 years ago

Also right wing politics in India enjoys a substantial support, especially the Hitler style (reflected in many govt decisions).

Do you even understand what Hiter style means?

Animats• 6 years ago

Hate speech is a core part of political discourse today. It's no longer out of the mainstream. Expecting Facebook to deal with that is asking too much of a private company. Whom should Facebook muzzle? ISIL? Le Pen? Trump?

justicezyx• 6 years ago

Zuck tried to do the same with China, but for whatever reasons never disclosed, they seem did not reach an agreement for FB to enter China.

I suspect, China asked something that might undermine Zuck's political ambition.

fareesh• 6 years ago

Is there a single thing that has been defeated by prohibition and censorship?

This is a losing strategy

AmIDev• 6 years ago

You can see many comments here justifying anti-Muslim actions of the govt by whataboutery. Now imagine that happening at scale on whatsapp/Facebook and MSM.

With most Indian family having access to smartphones, the amount of hatred and brainwashing that happens through this platform is unstoppable. Recently, Hindus were told not to buy from Muslim vendors, saying that Muslims are purposely spreading corona. Hindu sellers were provided with saffron flags for identification. Concentration camps are being built using the same people as workers, who would eventually end up in the camps. MSM openly spews anti-muslim venom during prime time. India is openly heading towards either a genocide or a civil war.

One can try their best to un-brainwash people, but one can't do much against a paid online army of twitter/whatsapp/facebook users.

Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech

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