Facebook India Vice-President Ajit Mohan on Tuesday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against a notice issued by a Delhi Assembly panel to appear before it for the social media platform's alleged role in the Delhi riots in February. The court will take up the matter on Wednesday, news agency ANI reported.
Facebook India executives last week had skipped a summon issued by the Assembly's panel for Peace and Harmony over a Wall Street Journal report that claimed Facebook deliberately did not act on hateful content in the country.
Mohan, also Facebook India's managing director, was issued summons to appear before the panel "as a witness for testifying under oath and for his assistance by providing the relevant information and explanations in order to smoothly expedite the veracity of allegations levelled against Facebook in the complaints and depositions made before the committee".
Instead, the panel had received a letter signed by Vikram Langeh, Director of Trust and Safety, Facebook where the latter objected to the notice and requested to recall it.
All members of the Delhi Peace and Harmony Committee, who were present at the last meeting, had taken strong exception to the reply received from Facebook India and had termed the letter as "contempt of the house", "vague", "breach of privilege", and "evasive". The panel members had urged the Chairman to send a "strong message to them to appear and the matter be referred to the privilege committee if they fail to appear and after speaking to the Speaker, a warrant must be issued against them".
One member had even alleged that Facebook was perhaps acting "on behalf of the central government".
The Peace and Harmony Committee, after summoning witnesses, hearing their depositions and cross-examining them, had reached the conclusion that there were serious allegations against Facebook, particularly on how it was selective in its implication of community standards. Questions were raised regarding its role when communal riots shook Delhi in February.
The Wall Street Journal report had claimed that a senior policy executive at Facebook India intervened in internal communication to stop a permanent ban on a BJP lawmaker after he allegedly shared communally charged posts. The executive, Ankhi Das, who also lobbies the Indian government on Facebook's behalf, told staff members that punishing violations from the ruling party would hurt the company's business in India.