Facebook turned blind eye to anti-Muslim posts in Modi’s India: WSJ

Company executive opposed applying hate-speech rules to a BJP leader fearing business fallout

Indian politician T Raja Singh, who has called for shooting down Rohingya Muslim immigrants, declared Muslims traitors and threatened to raze mosques in Facebook posts and public appearances, continues to remain active on the social media platform despite its stringent laws against hate-speech.

The decision not to move against Singh, who is a member of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist BJP party, came after Facebook's top public-policy executive in India, Ankhi Das, opposed applying the hate-speech rules to Singh and at least three other Hindu nationalist individuals and groups flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence, according to a report published in the Wall Street Journal.

Facebook Inc employees charged with policing the platform had earlier in the year ruled that Singh not only had violated the company's hate-speech rules but qualified as dangerous, a designation that takes into account a person's off-platform activities, according to current and former employees of the social media giant familiar with the matter.

Given India's history of communal violence and recent religious tensions, they argued, his rhetoric could lead to real-world violence, and he should be permanently banned from the company's platforms world-wide, a punishment that in the US has been doled out to radio host Alex Jones, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and numerous white supremacist organisations.

Social media giant which did not even spare US President Donald Trump for violating its fake news laws related to Covid-19 information and removed his post earlier this month, is reluctant to take action against the member of India’s ruling party out of business concerns.

Ankhi Das, whose job also includes lobbying India's government on Facebook's behalf, told staff members that punishing violations by politicians from Modi's party would damage the company’s business prospects in the country, the report quoted the current and former company officials as saying.

“The current and former Facebook employees said Ms Das’s intervention on behalf of Mr Singh is part of a broader pattern of favouritism by Facebook toward Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and Hindu hard-liners,” it added.

A company spokesperson told The Wall Street Journal that while Das had raised concerns about the political fallout that would result from designating Singh a “dangerous individual”, her opposition was not the sole factor that determined whether the BJP politician should remain on the platform.

The spokesperson added that Facebook is still considering whether it will ban Singh.