The Congress has trained its gun at social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp demanding Joint Parliamentary Committee probe into the “nexus” between these platforms and the ruling BJP and its parental organisation RSS.
On Sunday, while citing media report from Western press, Congress’ former president Rahul Gandhi said a tweet that the BJP and the RSS control Facebook and WhatsApp in India. “They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate. Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook,” he said. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad reacted to Congress’ allegations targeting Rahul Gandhi and his family.
After his tweet, the Congress held a press conference in which senior Congress leader Ajay Maken levelled serious charges on the social media giant Facebook which owns popular messaging app WhatsApp too.
“There are 40 crore Indians on WhatsApp and over 28 crore on Facebook. So, a probe is necessary into commercial dealings, propagation of hate content, and connection of Facebook and WhatsApp employees with the BJP,” said Maken. “The bias and alignment of the Facebook India’s leadership team with the BJP and RSS is not limited to just their Head of Public Policy in India. There are many others in that leadership team with a close working relationship with the BJP,” he alleged.
The Congress demanded that the government should clarify the “quid pro quo” with WhatsApp and Facebook and what type of business dealings they had with the government.
Congress Data Department chairman Praveen Chakravorty said, “I met the WhatsApp CEO and raised the issue in the past after the Congress working committee took it up but the CEO heard me politely and did not act.”
Congress Social Media head Rohan Gupta said that the party has raised the issue with the Facebook team in India also. “We met the team of Ankhi Das on 15 May and complained about the manipulative content. The team heard us but did nothing,” he said.
While accusing Facebook of damaging Indian democracy, Chakravorty said, “What gave Facebook the guts and the gumption to intrude, interfere and intervene in the world’s largest democratic exercise? First and foremost, we must remember that this is not just about Facebook as it also owns Whatsapp. These social media platforms control information, news and communication for hundreds of millions of Indians. And the BJP controls Facebook and Whatsapp in India.”
The Congress said, “A reputed American newspaper on Independence Day told us how we Indians are not truly free yet. How hundreds of millions of Indians are controlled, divided and manipulated through fake news and hate speech propagated by the ruling party through the American social media giant, Facebook.”
The Congress’ serious allegations met a swift and hard response from the ruling party. Union IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a couple of tweets targeted Rahul Gandhi and his family. Replying to Gandhi’s tweet, Prasad said, “Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP and RSS.”
“You were caught red-handed in alliance with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to weaponise data before the elections and now have the gall to question us?”, he added.
In his second tweet, Prasad said, “The fact is that today access to information and freedom of expression has been democratised. It is no longer controlled by retainers of your family and that is why it hurts. By the way, haven’t yet heard your condemnation of the Bengaluru riots. Where did your courage disappear?”