The Wall Street Journal’s story on August 14 unearthing alleged “unholy nexus” between behemoth social media Facebook and the ruling BJP has kicked off a political furore in the country. The stinging exposure by the WSJ raises serious questions about the huge social media investment and operations of the BJP and its alleged role in promoting hate between communities for advancing its political clout. As the BJP was apparently ‘caught red-handed’ in this murky affair, the opposition parties are rightly demanding a joint parliamentary probe.
With each passing day new revelations expose the deep nexus between the BJP and FB. India is Facebook’s largest market in the world with 216 million users, and continues to pose risks for user privacy, surveillance, misinformation, and hate speech.
The cosy connection of FB executives like Ankhi Das with senior BJP leaders and MPs in the run up to the Lok Sabha election of 2014 stands exposed.
As per documents quoted by a news report, citing leaked internal memos, chats, and email exchanges between key FB officials, one gets an insight into the kind of lobbying FB was resorting to in the BJP ecosystem between 2012-14.
- According to a July 2012 memo in which the Global Vice President of Public Policy of Facebook, Marne Levine writes in reference to the intermediary rules about a closed-door meeting, which then Minister for Law and Justice and Information and Technology Kapil Sibal was holding with Opposition Members of Parliament to discuss the language of these rules.
“Ankhi Das has advised MPs that the matter is sub judice in various courts of India and they should make that point with the minister and reorient the discussion to the substantive issues in the rules… We, along with Google and YI’s local policy leads, have worked with them on talking points”; “We also finished drafting a letter that (late) Arun Jaitley, leader of opposition can use on intermediary rules”.
- In the same memo there was a mention of the privacy law being drafted by a ‘Group of Experts on Privacy’ headed by Retired Justice AP Shah. “Ankhi (Das) engaged with the member of the government appointed committee… The committee members were not very forthcoming about the structures and the powers of the DPA.”
- In the same period Facebook was actively involved in “coalition” meetings in the Supreme Court case challenging some aspects of the IT Act, where four public interest litigations were being heard, including one by Member of Parliament Rajeev Chandrasekhar.
The memo says, “All these public interest litigations, a total of 4 against the Government of India will be heard together from February-April 2013. The Government has a tough job defending itself”.
- It further adds, “We had a coalition meeting and agreed to keep the issue alive in the press in order to reflect public sentiment to the court. Minister Kapil Sibal has said that issues will now be decided by the Supreme Court. We engaged with the newspaper – to help shape the story”.
- An article written by Ankhi Das on May 17, 2014, a day after the Lok Sabha election results was declared, says:
“India’s 2014 elections will be remembered for many reasons but especially this: Social Media platforms, which have contended with Government censorships since 2011, became vital political campaign tools and the place for free political expression and organizing.
“We launched our Election Tracker on March 4 and consistently BJP was the no. 1 party and Narendra Modi the no. 1 leader throughout the campaign…”
- BBC report/article quoting Facebook spokesperson/Policy Communicator Manager Andy Stone –
The Facebook representative acknowledged to the BBC that Ankhi Das “had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Mr. Singh a dangerous individual, but said her opposition wasn’t the sole factor in the company’s decision to let Mr. Singh on the platform”.
- On 26th March 2018 Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked each BJP MP to get at least 3,00,000 likes on their Facebook page.
- In September 2018, Amit Shah, while addressing the BJP’s Social Media workers in Rajasthan, proudly revealed,
“We are capable of delivering any message we want to the public, whether sweet or sour, true or fake.” He gave an example of a BJP worker making a fake story go viral in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly Election. The story claimed that Akhilesh Yadav who was the Chief Minister of UP at that time had slapped his father Mulayam Singh. “We were able to do this only because we had 32 lakh people in our WhatsApp groups.”
- BJP bagging the maximum space for political advertisements in the run-up/during the 2019 General elections.
- In 2018, a magazine published a story against Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah but the story got throttled by Facebook.
- The Caravan report (30 January 2019) by an American journalist (Inji Penee) – How Ankhi Das, in the presence of Monika Bickert (Head of Global Policy Management, Facebook) in response to Facebook policy with respect to “Right-wing groups/verbal threats to women”, retorted by saying – “You are living in the US; you wouldn’t understand India.”
- In June 2017, the Election Commission of India began a partnership with Facebook India for a voter awareness campaign. One year later, on 23rd March 2018, then CEC OP Rawat announced that the ECI was reviewing its partnership with Facebook India due to concerns of Data breach, which could affect free and fair elections. But, barely four days later the ECI decided to continue its partnership with Facebook India, “Despite aberrations”.
- There are also reports that 11 employees of an internal platform of Facebook have demanded company leaders to denounce “anti-Muslim bigotry” and ensure policy consistency.
These are numerous examples of the alleged collusion between Facebook India and the BJP. And the decision to not block right wing hate mongers is obviously steeped in the massive ads these anti-national elements generate.
A look at Facebook’s business interests in India explains the inaction against hate posts that continue to fester animosity and attempts to incite violence.
Facebook-owned WhatsApp awaits a payment licence. The possible profits in India, a market where the messaging app has 40 crore users is undeniably huge.
In fact, many have raised eyebrows on the FB’s deal with Mukesh Ambani controlled Rel. Jio. FB bought a little under 10 per cent stake in JIO for Rs 43,574 crore, which is the largest minority stake investment by a tech company anywhere in the world.
According to the WSJ report, when Ankhi Das was confronted on this account, she said, “FB staff members that punishing violations by politicians from Mr. Modi’s party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country.”
It is to be noted that Ankhi’s links with the BJP and RSS affiliated ABVP go back a long way. Her identical twin sister Rashmi Das was not just ABVP General Secretary at JNU, she continues to be an ABVP activist and was a prominent voice that allegedly supported violence on JNU campus.
What is more, on 17 August, Ankhi Das filed a police complaint alleging death threats. Among those named were senior journalist Awesh Tiwari. Tiwari, who is Chhattisgarh chief of Hindi news channel Swaraj Express, denied all allegations and filed an FIR against Das for “spreading communal animosity.” He told The Quint that Facebook had previously blocked his posts on Pulwama, CAA-NRC, and tribal issues, all of which were critical of the Centre.
The main opposition Congress general secretary KC Venugopal has dispatched a letter to Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to initiate a high-level inquiry into Facebook India’s leadership and their alleged bias towards the ruling BJP. The letter suggested that the report of the inquiry be submitted to the board of Facebook Inc. within one or two months and be made public.
Sharing the letter on his Twitter handle, former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi said Facebook needs to be questioned by all Indians. “We cannot allow any manipulation of our hard-earned democracy through bias, fake news and hate speech. As exposed by WSJ, Facebook’s involvement in peddling fake and hate news needs to be questioned by all Indians,” he tweeted.
The accompanying comment reads, “BJP & RSS control Facebook & WhatsApp in India. They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate. Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook.”
His tweets made BJP jittery which harks back to the Cambridge Analytica data scandal where it was alleged that the UK-based firm offered Congress some Facebook data to influence voters in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019.
Calling the Congress “losers”, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, “You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections & now have the gall to question us?”
Besides Congress, CPI (M), Welfare Party of India and Social Democratic Party of India and others strongly condemn the role of global social media behemoth, Facebook in India. They reiterated the demand for a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) probe saying “because no action which weakens democracy and disturbs our social harmony will be tolerated.”
Congress MP, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, also shot a letter summoning the representatives of Facebook and IT Ministry on September 2. He stated that the Committee will examine this issue and ask Facebook for an explanation. However, BJP opposed the move and party MP Nishikant Dubey wrote to Lok Sabha Speaker, requesting for removal of Tharoor as the chairman of the parliamentary panel.
No wonder why the BJP is running shy of parliamentary scrutiny; no wonder why, if questions on Facebook’s professional integrity are raised, none other than the Union Minister Prasad himself comes to the rescue of Facebook; no wonder why Prime Minister promotes Facebook by exhorting his MPs to get a minimum 3,00,000 likes on their pages, and Facebook in turn ensures that hate speeches by leaders of the BJP are not removed despite the stated policy of Facebook in this.