Congress MP Shashi Tharoor | File photo | ANI
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor | File photo | ANI
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New Delhi: BJP MPs, who are members of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, Monday complained to the Lok Sabha Speaker about Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who heads the panel, for wanting to hear from Facebook on the hate speech issue before taking the rest of the panel members into confidence.

The MPs said they will also be writing formally to Speaker Om Birla on the issue.

This comes a day after Tharoor tweeted that the standing committee would seek the views of Facebook on a news report published by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on 14 August that said Facebook India had turned a blind eye to hate speech by a BJP leader and three other “Hindu nationalist individuals and groups” to avoid damaging the social media platform’s business prospects in its biggest market.

Tharoor also spoke to the media about the issue, saying he “would certainly look into the issue and the committee will seek the views of Facebook”.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey told ThePrint he has approached the Speaker on the matter on behalf of MPs from the BJP and its allies, who are part of the panel.

“The chairman of the standing committee does not have the authority to do anything without discussing the agenda with its members. I have already spoken to the Speaker and we will be writing to the Speaker about Shashi Tharoor, who spoke to the media about Facebook and sought to hear its views without even taking the members into confidence,” said Dubey, an MP from Godda constituency in Jharkhand.

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Another BJP MP, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint it will be a joint complaint from all the NDA members.

ThePrint reached Tharoor via phone calls and text messages for a comment, but there was no response until the publication of this report.

Twitter spat

Earlier in the day, Dubey tweeted that the chairman of the standing committee on IT does not have any authority to do anything without discussing the agenda with its members.

TMC MP Mahua Moitra reacted to his tweet and said: “Am IT comm member — agenda item was already agreed and bulletinized with Speaker’s approval at the beginning of the year. When to schedule each item and who to call is chairman’s prerogative. Amazing how @BJP jumps up and down at anything to do with FB’s interests!”

Tharoor responded to Moitra’s tweet, saying Dubey has brought “disrepute” to the standing committee and he will take it up.

“You are absolutely right, @mahuaMoitra,& by imputing motives to my decision, @nishikant_dubey has brought the Committee’s work into disrepute, a matter I will take up. Extraordinary that an MP would suggest that a matter of such great public interest should NOT be taken up by us!” he said.

Dubey then replied to Tharoor, saying: “Thanks for your comment, time will tell who brought the committee’s work into disrepute Mr. Chairman”.

Tharoor’s tweet was in reply to Rahul Gandhi’s post

Reacting to the Facebook hate speech issue Sunday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi tweeted that the “BJP and RSS control Facebook and 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,” he wrote.

It was in response to Gandhi’s tweet that Tharoor wrote the standing committee would want to hear from Facebook on the issue.

Responding to Gandhi’s tweet, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reminded him of the three-year-old Cambridge Analytica scandal.

“Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS. You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica & Facebook to weaponise data before the elections & now have the gall to question us?” Prasad posted on Twitter.

 

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