THE IT parliamentary committee is learnt to have unanimously decided Monday to record the statement of Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang even as panel members questioned Facebook India officials over its safeguards to prevent hate mongering, polarisation and tweaking of the democratic process.
The committee will approach Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for permission to invite Zhang for recording her statements — the Speaker’s permission is required to allow persons from overseas to appear before the panels. Zhang, the first former Facebook employee who had made public the company’s alleged unethical working, had shared dossiers with the House panel led by Congress leader Shashi Tharoor.
On Monday, representatives of Facebook India including Shivnath Thukral, its head of policy, were questioned by MPs for almost two hours. They were summoned following allegations by whistleblowers and numerous studies on how social media platforms whip up sentiments to enhance activities on their platforms to promote business interests.
Panel members, it is believed, were said to be dissatisfied with the response, and Facebook was asked to provide more details in writing on the safeguards.
The social media giant has been criticised by political leaders for not taking into account the plurality of the nation while dealing with such issues. Leaders have said it did not have linguistic or ethnic diversity among those who flagged such issues — it has content reviewers only in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu...
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