Union IT min slams Rahul Gandhi over FB-BJP remark; cites 'Cong-Cambridge Analytica' link

Responding to Rahul Gandhi's allegation on Facebook and BJP, Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Sunday, pointed out to Congress' alleged involvement with Cambridge Analytica to 'weaponise data'. Terming Gandhi a 'loser who could not influence people in his own party', Prasad questioned Gandhi's gall to question BJP. Affirming that information and freedom of expression has been democratized today, Prasad asked Gandhi about his non-existent condemnation on the Bengaluru riots.

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RSP to Gandhi: 'Gall to question us?'

Rahul Gandhi on Facebook's 'hate-speech policy' for BJP: 'Influenced electorate with it'

Rahul Gandhi lashes out at BJP

Earlier in the day, former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi alleged that 'BJP & RSS controlled Facebook' while opining on a Wall Street Journal (WSJ) report on hate-speech on Facebook. He claimed that the 'American media had finally come out with the truth about Facebook'. Gandhi, who has been continually critical of the Modi government alleged that the BJP spread fake news and hatred through Facebook to influence the electorate. Facebook has currently invested a whopping $5.7 billion in the Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio platforms, raking a 9.9% stake in the company.

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What does the WSJ report claim?

The American newspaper Wall Street Journal claimed that BJP's Telangana MLA T Raja Singh had often made communal and incendiary speeches that were posted on Facebook, clashing with the company's hate speech rules. The report claims that inspite of the posts allegedly violating Facebook's hate-speech rules and qualifying as dangerous, Facebook India's top public-policy executive Ankhi Das had claimed that punishing violations by BJP would 'damage the company's business prospects in India'. Apart from Singh, three other BJP leaders or Hindutva groups were allegedly flagged by Facebook for hate-speech. 

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The report further points out that Facebook has faced issues to launch its telecommunications service - Free Basics in 2016 from the Modi government, as it violated net neutrality. The report further stated that while some of Singh's posts were removed by Facebook, the social media giant has demoted Singh's account to a non-verified, unofficial account without a blue tick.Citing preferential treatment by Facebook, WSJ points to the removal of thousands of Congress-linked Pakistan military posts and several BJP-linked fake news pages prior to the Lok Sabha elections. While Facebook publically disclosed the deletion of the Congress-linked accounts, it allegedly did not disclose the removal of the BJP-linked posts.