On ‘bias in enforcing policy’, Facebook says: Denounce hate, bigotry

A week after The Wall Street Journal reported that a senior public policy executive of Facebook in India had opposed applying hate speech rules to BJP-linked individuals and groups, the company on Friday stated that it “denounce(s) hate and bigotry”.

Facebook said in a statement: “…(L)ike a truly diverse organization, our employees represent a varied political spectrum who have either served in many administrations or have political experience and take immense pride in being active contributors to public service. Despite hailing from diverse political affiliations and backgrounds, they perform their respective duties and interpret our policies in a fair and non-partisan way. The decisions around content escalations are not made unilaterally by just one person; rather, they are inclusive of views from different teams and disciplines within the company.”

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The Wall Street Journal had reported that citing business imperatives, a senior public policy executive of Facebook “opposed applying hate-speech rules” to at least four individuals and groups linked with the BJP despite the fact that they were “flagged internally for promoting or participating in violence.”

The company on Friday stated, “Over the last few days, we have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our policies. We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form.” Facebook also said that hate speech decisions are separate from their “dangerous” label on individuals, which is determined by the company’s dangerous organisations teams that “solicit input from cross-functional teams internal to the company”.