Facebook’s New Terms Can Legally Censor Posts, India MD Answers Political Bias Concerns

While the Congress-led opposition has underlined Facebook’s failure to remove anti-Muslim posts on the platform, members of the ruling party have also posed allegations of Facebook being driven by personal bias of employees. Amit Malviya, head of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s IT cell, has alleged that Mohan, who presently heads the company’s India operations, was a part of erstwhile UPA governments, and hence has strong ties to the government. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey has further accused Shashi Tharoor, chairperson of today’s parliamentary committee hearing Mohan and Facebook India’s views on the allegations, to be using the platform to further his own political agenda.

In many ways, Facebook’s update to its terms of services may be seen as a response to the present situation the company finds itself in. A Facebook spokesperson was yet to respond to News18’s request for a comment on the matter, at the time of publishing. Facebook’s new content policy may sound like it would stifle or censor anti-government voices, and a far cry from its CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s original, apolitical stance.

However, it presently appears to safeguard the actions taken on its platform, and shield itself from allegations of employee bias that are presently ravaging the platform. Going forward, it remains to be seen how much further might Facebook’s approach towards the use of its platform gets affected, in light of the socio-political tensions in two of its biggest markets – India and USA.