‘No one’s status, who…’ Facebook India head on BJP’s hate speech controversy

Facebook India operations head Ajit Mohan has said that his company implements its policies in a non-partisan and objective manner. Speaking to a news channel on Friday, Mohan rubbished reports that a top executive had vetoed action against a ruling BJP leader who was responsible for hate speech.

Ajit Mohan, Facebook’s Vice President and Managing Director of India, said, “When it comes to limiting hate speech or speech to violence, we are very clear and we make our community guidelines very clear that our platform But what is allowed and what is not.

“Nobody in the company is in a position to compulsorily say that ‘the company should not enforce this policy’,” he said. He said that I think it is wrong to say about internal dialogue that this process is giving freedom to flourish too many voices which are being referenced.

Mohan said, “I don’t think anyone wants hate speech on our platform. I don’t think it’s in our interest to expose users to hate speech… Our financial incentive is to do the right thing on our platform.”

Ajit Mohan was speaking about the controversy over his former public policy director Ankhi Das, who resigned from his position last year. In a report, Das had said that she was instrumental in giving a free pass to a BJP leader in the social network who was accused of hate speech. A few weeks after the report came, Facebook banned that leader. There was a strong reaction from this incident inside and outside the company.