FACEBOOK USED AS TOOL FOR INCITING RELIGIOUS HATRED IN INDIA

Wed 27 October 2021:

Facebook’s products have turned into a tool for inciting religious hatred in India, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported, citing an internal report.

According to a July 2020 report, the social network services in India were awash with inflammatory content that has surged 300% above previous levels since December 2019 when religious protests swept the country, the newspaper said late on Saturday.

Rumors and calls for violence spread engulfed in particular Facebook’s WhatsApp messenger in late February 2020, the internal report found, when mass unrest in New Delhi left 53 dead.

Hindu and Muslim users in India are reported to face “a large amount of content that encourages conflict, hatred and violence on Facebook and WhatsApp,” including material accusing Muslims of allegedly spreading the coronavirus, among others, the WSJ said, adding that many users believe that it was Facebook’s responsibility to reduce this inflammatory content on its services.

Communal and religious tensions in India have a history of boiling over on social media and stoking violence.

The so-called Facebook Papers, leaked by whistleblower Frances Haugen, show that the company has been aware of the problems for years, raising questions over whether it has done enough to address these issues.

Many critics and digital experts say it has failed to do so, especially in cases where members of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are involved.

Both Modi and Facebook chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg have exuded bonhomie, memorialised by a 2015 image of the two hugging at the Facebook headquarters.

India is Facebook’s largest market with at least 340 million users – nearly 400 million Indians also use the company’s messaging service WhatsApp. But both have been accused of being vehicles to spread hate speech and fake news against minorities.

The misinformation triggered a wave of violence, business boycotts and hate speech towards Muslims.

The social network has made headlines after its former product manager and whistleblower Frances Haugen told a congressional testimony in early October that the social network was allegedly being aware it inflicted harm on the mental health of teenagers but did not do much to prevent content promoting “hate and division,” putting profit over users’ safety.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday dismissed the accusations, adding that the platform cares “deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health.”

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