Form of words:
New Delhi: 23, internal Facebook documents reveal that the company is aware that its apps – Facebook and WhatsApp – are used to spread inflammatory content primarily targeting Muslims. report good In wall street journal.
The report said Facebook was so “concerned” about how their services were linked to a communal rift in India that the company sent researchers to interview “dozens of users”.
Facebook researchers later found that “both Hindu and Muslim users in India say they are subject to ‘a large amount of content that encourages conflict, hatred and violence’ on Facebook and WhatsApp.”
This hateful content includes examples like “blaming Muslims” for spreading Covid and “claims” about Muslim men “targeting Hindu women for marriage as a ‘Muslim takeover of the country'”, WSJ Report.
Internal Facebook report cited WSJ The article claims that “most of the content” posted in Hindi and Bengali by “users, groups and pages” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is never flagged due to technical limitations, and calls for removal of the group. Not named because of “political sensitivity”
The RSS is the ideological base of the ruling BJP, and PM Narendra Modi is known to have worked with the organization over the years.
according to the report WSJ, is part of a series that seeks to investigate Facebook’s “failures” and its “reluctance or inability to address them”. US based paper was also there Another report released Last year it alleged that Facebook India failed to act against hate speech, including a leader of the ruling BJP, over business concerns in its biggest market.
Facebook, which has been under scrutiny along with other social media companies over their ability to promote hate speech, denied the allegations at the time.
According to WSJIn response to an October 23 article, Facebook said that the cited reports were preliminary in nature.
reached by WSJFacebook spokesman Andy Stone did not comment on the activity of “Hindu nationalist groups”. However, he is quoted in WSJ The report states that Facebook bans an individual or organization only after “following a careful, rigorous and multidisciplinary process”.
Stone said some internal reports point to further discussions and do not include recommendations for policy.
According to Stone, Facebook is making significant investments in detecting hate speech and this type of content is declining across platforms globally. He also said that Facebook has the technical capability to detect objectionable content in five Indian languages, including Hindi and Bengali.
Read also: ‘Facebook knew RSS promoted anti-Muslim statements but took little action’, says whistleblower
CAA protest
facebook researcher, WSJ The report, in a July 2020 report titled “Communal Conflict Part I in India”, noted that “inflammatory content” on Facebook [in India] The months after December 2019 saw an increase of 300 per cent.
December 2019 was around the time when India was witnessing protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has been described as discriminatory towards Muslims.
In February 2020, clashes between supporters and opponents of CAA led to riots in Delhi. More than 50 people died in the clashes.
According to the report, rumors and rumors of violence spread on Facebook’s WhatsApp messaging service in late February 2020, when 53 people died in Delhi in communal violence. WSJ The report says.
Facebook researchers interviewed dozens of users in India, where a “Hindu man in Delhi” reportedly said the regular Facebook and WhatsApp messages he received were “all very dangerous”, and included “Hindus are in danger, Muslims are in danger”. We’re about to kill” messages. .
A Muslim man living in Mumbai told researchers that “there is so much hate going on on Facebook… it’s scary, it’s really scary” and that he feared for his life.
The Facebook survey also found that many users believe it is “Facebook’s responsibility to reduce this content” that is found on its platform.
RSS and Bajrang Dal
An internal Facebook report titled “Advisorial Harmful Networks: India Case Study” says that pro-RSS Facebook users post about conspiracies like “love jihad”, claiming that “Muslim clerics either try to make it halal”. Spit on food, or spread covid- 19, as a big war against Hindus”.
Despite such inflammatory content related to RSS, which usually gets banned from Facebook, the company has decided not to remove RSS from its platform “in view of its political sensitivity”, the internal document was quoted as saying.
Yet another insider Facebook reportedly alleged that Bajrang Dal, a fringe Hindu right-wing platform, used WhatsApp to “organize and incite violence”.
The WSJ says the Bajrang Dal is still active on Facebook despite another internal report recommending the removal of the group. The same report states that Bajrang Dal is associated with BJP.
Reached for comment by the WSJ, the RSS said Facebook could contact it anytime regarding issues related to the group’s activities, but did not do so. Bajrang Dal denies allegations of promoting hate speech on Facebook.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
Read also: How Facebook Inspired a New User from India to Gore, Fake News in Just 21 Days
subscribe our channel youtube And Wire
Why is the news media in crisis and how can you fix it?
India needs free, unbiased, non-hyphenated and questionable journalism even more as it is facing many crises.
But the news media itself is in trouble. There have been brutal layoffs and pay-cuts. The best of journalism are shrinking, yielding to raw prime-time spectacle.
ThePrint has the best young journalists, columnists and editors to work for it. Smart and thinking people like you will have to pay a price to maintain this quality of journalism. Whether you live in India or abroad, you can Here.