For the first time outside the US, Facebook was subjected to tough questioning by Members of Parliament at a meeting of the Standing Committee attached to the Ministry of Information and Technology.

The meeting was attended by 13 MPs of the BJP and four from opposition parties. Almost all the members criticised the US-based social media giant for political bias.

The BJP MPs wanted to know why 2.6 million pages of BJP-related posts were taken down, erased or tampered with by the company. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who was present, and has aggressively questioned the practices at Facebook, lashed out at the organisation, as did Anil Agarwal (BJP), Sanjay Seth (BJP) and Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress) .

As proceedings of parliamentary committees are covered by parliamentary privilege, very little information was forthcoming from Facebook on how the organisation defended itself. Those who attended the meeting on its behalf were Ajit Mohan, vice president; and S Purohit, who is legal advisor. Facebook said their deposition would be submitted in writing to the MPs.

Another meeting where Facebook will be summoned, is on the cards.

Two activists for internet neutrality – journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, also the author of “The Real Face of Facebook in India’ and Nikhil Pahwa, founder of digital news portal Medianama – also addressed the Standing Committee. Guha Thakurta described Facebook’s interventions in favour of Narendra Modi and the BJP during the 2014 and 2019 elections and detailed how executives from Facebook were also advisors to BJP during the election campaigns.

“There is very little the government can do” said an MP. “All we can do is hammer away at them (Facebook) hoping it will have some impact on its share price as it is a listed company. “ Another MP said the government could teach Facebook a lesson by preventing it from launching the Whatsappp payment gateway.

However, they conceded that with the partnership with Jio, options for the government to act against Facebook are limited.