Amid Political Row, Facebook Says It's Non-partisan, Transparent; Denounces Bigotry

Facebook on Friday said it is a non-partisan platform and will continue to remove content posted by public figures in India that are in violation of its standards, amid allegations that the social media giant did not apply hate speech rules for posts by certain ruling party politicians.

Recently, a Wall Street Journal report alleged that Facebook's content policies favoured the ruling party in India. Since then, the ruling BJP and opposition Congress have been trading barbs over social media giant's alleged bias.

"Facebook is and always has been an open, transparent and non-partisan platform where people can express themselves freely. Over the last few days, we have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our policies. We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form," Facebook India Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said in a blog post.

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He also said that Facebook has an impartial approach to dealing with content and is strongly governed by its Community Standards.

"We enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position, party affiliation or religious and cultural belief. We have removed and will continue to remove content posted by public figures in India when it violates our Community Standards," he said.

The parliamentary standing committee on Information Technology, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, has summoned Facebook on September 2 to discuss the issue of alleged misuse of social media platforms in the wake of claims that the US firm did not apply hate-speech rules to certain BJP politicians.