Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
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Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#2It 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.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#3India 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.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#4Removing 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.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#5Ah Yes Facebook... no other company works as hard to be friends with Authoritarian / Far Right political groups. Proud of you Zuck.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#6It 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.
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.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#7It 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.
Indian Population doesn't take digital world seriously, and majority have no digital literacy, so it is difficult for that to happen.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#8Facebook'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:
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#9It 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.
Indian Population doesn't take digital world seriously, and majority have no digital literacy, so it is difficult for that to happen.
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.
Re: Facebook’s ties to India’s ruling party complicate its fight against hate speech
#10This 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!