Harping on the alleged BJP-Facebook links, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MP Derek O’Brien has written a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg requesting him to maintain the integrity of the platform in the upcoming elections in West Bengal. The Rajya Sabha MP accused Facebook of blocking pages and accounts in Bengal due to its alleged ‘links’ with the BJP.
TMC MP Derek O’Brien writes to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. He writes ‘With elections in WB months away, your recent blocking of pages & accounts in Bengal points to link b/w FB & BJP…Please do all it takes to maintain integrity of your platform in Indian electoral process.’ pic.twitter.com/MlBHoo4TEF
— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2020
Brien also questioned the role of Facebook in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, accusing the platform of having links with the BJP. He referred to the articles published in the BBC, the Wall Street Journal and others alleging Facebook’s bias towards the BJP and requested Zuckerberg of investigating the charges levelled against its senior management in India.
This comes after Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a letter to Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg yesterday pointing at the inherent bias of the social media platform against the political factions that apparently go against the Left. In the letter, Prasad had highlighted how the dominant bias and political leanings of the employees and officials of Facebook India reflected in its actions censoring freedom of speech and expression.
Last month a report of the Wall Street Journal had alleged that one of the top executives of the company, Ankhi Das, supported the BJP and PM Modi and therefore this was reason enough to question her neutrality. This was countered by some shocking revelations made by BJP IT Cell Head Amit Malviya about Congress leaders hiring lobbyists in the USA to spread propaganda.
Recently, BJP’s Amit Malviya had shared several screenshots alleging that many top officials of Facebook India have been promoting parties like Congress, AAP and TMC. After the allegations of Congress supporters on the social media against Ankhi Das, she had also filed a police complaint claiming a threat to life.
