> Ankhi Das, Facebook’s most senior executive in India, resigned in October 2020 after the Wall Street Journal reported she had intervened to prevent the platform removing accounts of members of the country’s Hindu nationalist ruling party, some of whom had called for violence against India’s Muslim minority.
I am not sure it is Facebook’s place to be policing members of the government of the largest democracy in the world.
Facebook claims to follow a content moderation policy [1] for users on its platform. "Members of the government of the largest democracy in the world" is not a justification to bestow some kind of immunity from their policy. They should apply that policy to all users.
I'm only referring to the specific case of the members of the ruling party allegedly making calls for violence. There is nothing in the article that says these were made on Facebook.
"religious violence fomented in India across Meta’s platforms.”
"Facebook allowed a Hindu nationalist conspiracy theory to flourish on its platform"
"One video of an extremist preacher calling for Hindus to rise up and kill Muslims racked up 1.4 million views but was not deleted"
"Facebook banned a Hindu extremist group under its terrorism policies—but left most of its pages online for months after that ban, allowing them to share content"
"In Facebook posts and public appearances, Indian politician T. Raja Singh has said Rohingya Muslim immigrants should be shot, called Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques. [FB employees] concluded Mr. Singh not only had violated the company’s hate-speech rules "
"The company’s top public-policy executive in the country, Ankhi Das, opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence, said the current and former employees."
"team took no action after BJP politicians posted content accusing Muslims of intentionally spreading the coronavirus, plotting against the nation and waging a “love jihad” campaign by seeking to marry Hindu women"
"He has used Facebook, where his own page and those dedicated to him have more than 400,000 followers, to say that Muslims who kill cows—animals revered by Hindus—should be slaughtered like them."
"Another BJP legislator, a member of Parliament named Anantkumar Hegde, has posted essays and cartoons to his Facebook page alleging that Muslims are spreading Covid-19 in the country in a conspiracy to wage “Corona Jihad.”"
"Within hours of the videotaped message, which Mr. Mishra uploaded to Facebook, rioting broke out that left dozens of people dead. Most of the victims were Muslims, and some of their killings were organized via Facebook’s WhatsApp, according to court documents filed by police and published in Indian newspapers."
I guess America cares about India's human rights record now that India is trading with Russia and doesn't back Ukraine unconditionally. You coud totally see this coming once India started trading with Russia.
The Indian government, and especially the current government, has been treating muslims terribly for years. But the American establishment didn't have a problem with it until India declared they wouldn't go along with Russian sanctions.
The current Indian government has taken an increasingly fascist approach towards Indian Muslims. It has been jailing Muslim activists without due course and trials, demolishing homes of Muslims participating in peaceful protests and turning a blind eye to fireband Hindu leaders openly calling for genocide against Muslims.
Hmm these articles quote people like Rana Ayyub who have been known to scam people [1]. And Javed mohammed who incited violence over mere words. As for Bangalore specifically I don't agree with that ideology, but there is an influx of illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in the city - I will not ignore that either.
Now I wonder if you are aware about what recently happened, where two Muslim men beheaded a man in broad daylight for merely supporting someone's right to speak about their prophet. The poor man just happened to support a BJP spokesperson who was defending her faith. There have been multiple instances where there were massive riots and protests calling for the spokesperson rape and beheading. No to mention a leaked document about islamisation of India [3].
I personally do not think Muslims are being oppressed in light of such activities. On the contrary I think the game of media and setting narratives is being played on an international level to depict India as being anti-Muslim.
For overall context, the current Indian government has taken an increasingly fascist approach towards Indian Muslims. It has been jailing Muslim activists without due course and trials, demolishing homes of Muslims participating in peaceful protests and turning a blind eye to fireband Hindu leaders openly calling for genocide against Muslims.
Cringeworthy strawman. But also demonstrates the kind of rationalization and whitewashing that's prevalent in the minds of millions of regular Indians, not just those working in FB.
Ha, good question. "Indians", as it's used in such contexts, is really a euphemism to refer only to India's Hindus. A word trick when describing an undesirable behaviour prevalent mainly in one community but without fixing responsibility for that behaviour on that community. It's so common that even a disapproving critic like me ends up using such code words unthinkingly.
Is it Facebook's role to monitor a country's human rights record? I'd be all for it, if that were the case, and it the criteria for human rights transgressions were universally applied.
59 comments
[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 105 ms ] threadI am not sure it is Facebook’s place to be policing members of the government of the largest democracy in the world.
[1]: https://transparency.fb.com/en-gb/policies/community-standar...
Assuming you intend to see, you can see how if you read the article and its linked articles.
"religious violence fomented in India across Meta’s platforms.”
"Facebook allowed a Hindu nationalist conspiracy theory to flourish on its platform"
"One video of an extremist preacher calling for Hindus to rise up and kill Muslims racked up 1.4 million views but was not deleted"
"Facebook banned a Hindu extremist group under its terrorism policies—but left most of its pages online for months after that ban, allowing them to share content"
"In Facebook posts and public appearances, Indian politician T. Raja Singh has said Rohingya Muslim immigrants should be shot, called Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques. [FB employees] concluded Mr. Singh not only had violated the company’s hate-speech rules "
"The company’s top public-policy executive in the country, Ankhi Das, opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Mr. Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence, said the current and former employees."
"team took no action after BJP politicians posted content accusing Muslims of intentionally spreading the coronavirus, plotting against the nation and waging a “love jihad” campaign by seeking to marry Hindu women"
"He has used Facebook, where his own page and those dedicated to him have more than 400,000 followers, to say that Muslims who kill cows—animals revered by Hindus—should be slaughtered like them."
"Another BJP legislator, a member of Parliament named Anantkumar Hegde, has posted essays and cartoons to his Facebook page alleging that Muslims are spreading Covid-19 in the country in a conspiracy to wage “Corona Jihad.”"
"Within hours of the videotaped message, which Mr. Mishra uploaded to Facebook, rioting broke out that left dozens of people dead. Most of the victims were Muslims, and some of their killings were organized via Facebook’s WhatsApp, according to court documents filed by police and published in Indian newspapers."
The Indian government, and especially the current government, has been treating muslims terribly for years. But the American establishment didn't have a problem with it until India declared they wouldn't go along with Russian sanctions.
https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/beyond-blasphemy-in...
https://www.boomlive.in/news/hindu-rashtra-convention-bengal...
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/india...
https://article-14.com/post/jailed-or-punished-with-or-witho...
Now I wonder if you are aware about what recently happened, where two Muslim men beheaded a man in broad daylight for merely supporting someone's right to speak about their prophet. The poor man just happened to support a BJP spokesperson who was defending her faith. There have been multiple instances where there were massive riots and protests calling for the spokesperson rape and beheading. No to mention a leaked document about islamisation of India [3]. I personally do not think Muslims are being oppressed in light of such activities. On the contrary I think the game of media and setting narratives is being played on an international level to depict India as being anti-Muslim.
[1] https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/journalist-rana-ayyub-... [2] https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/clashes-ove... [3] https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/vision-2047-india-towa...
edit1: typo fixed
https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-house-of-representatives-...
https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/beyond-blasphemy-in...
https://www.boomlive.in/news/hindu-rashtra-convention-bengal...
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/india...
https://article-14.com/post/jailed-or-punished-with-or-witho...
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
> Meta has been accused of “whitewashing” a long-awaited report on its human rights impact in India