<p>The Congress party in India on Tuesday shot off a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to set up a high-level inquiry in the company’s leadership team in India in the wake of a media report alleging the social networking giant’s interference in the electoral democracy in the country.</p>.<p>“Set up a high-level inquiry by Facebook headquarters into Facebook India's leadership team and their operations in a time-bound manner, and publish and make transparent all instances of hate speech since 2014 that was allowed on the platform. Facebook India should appoint a new team so that the investigation is not influenced,” Venugopal said in a three-page letter to Zuckerberg.</p>.<p>The Congress party missive came days after a report in a US media outlet claimed that Facebook deliberately ignored disruptive content from members of the BJP despite being flagged internally.</p>.<p>“We cannot allow any manipulation of our hard-earned democracy through bias, fake news & hate speech. As exposed by @WSJ, Facebook’s involvement in peddling fake and hate news needs to be questioned by all Indians,” Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.</p>.<p>Venugopal said Congress leaders had raised issues of bias with several executives of Facebook and WhatsApp, “mostly to deaf ears”.</p>.<p>Congress leaders said that the party was disappointed by the revelations made in the US-based Wall Street Journal's article and added that this was a “damning and serious allegation of Facebook India's interference in India's electoral democracy.’</p>.<p>They have accused the BJP and the RSS of controlling Facebook and WhatsApp in India, a claim dismissed by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.</p>.<p>“Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS,” Prasad said.</p>.<p>Venugopal said Congress and other leading political parties have also demanded a Parliamentary Committee probe into Facebook’s purported role in manipulating India’s electoral democracy. </p>
<p>The Congress party in India on Tuesday shot off a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, asking him to set up a high-level inquiry in the company’s leadership team in India in the wake of a media report alleging the social networking giant’s interference in the electoral democracy in the country.</p>.<p>“Set up a high-level inquiry by Facebook headquarters into Facebook India's leadership team and their operations in a time-bound manner, and publish and make transparent all instances of hate speech since 2014 that was allowed on the platform. Facebook India should appoint a new team so that the investigation is not influenced,” Venugopal said in a three-page letter to Zuckerberg.</p>.<p>The Congress party missive came days after a report in a US media outlet claimed that Facebook deliberately ignored disruptive content from members of the BJP despite being flagged internally.</p>.<p>“We cannot allow any manipulation of our hard-earned democracy through bias, fake news & hate speech. As exposed by @WSJ, Facebook’s involvement in peddling fake and hate news needs to be questioned by all Indians,” Rahul Gandhi said on Twitter.</p>.<p>Venugopal said Congress leaders had raised issues of bias with several executives of Facebook and WhatsApp, “mostly to deaf ears”.</p>.<p>Congress leaders said that the party was disappointed by the revelations made in the US-based Wall Street Journal's article and added that this was a “damning and serious allegation of Facebook India's interference in India's electoral democracy.’</p>.<p>They have accused the BJP and the RSS of controlling Facebook and WhatsApp in India, a claim dismissed by Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.</p>.<p>“Losers who cannot influence people even in their own party keep cribbing that the entire world is controlled by BJP & RSS,” Prasad said.</p>.<p>Venugopal said Congress and other leading political parties have also demanded a Parliamentary Committee probe into Facebook’s purported role in manipulating India’s electoral democracy. </p>
