Communications and IT Minister writes to Facebook to come up with country-specific community guidelines

Union Communications and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has asked the founder and head of the social media platform, Facebook, to come up with country-specific community guidelines for better representation of diverse views.

In a letter written to Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, the minister raised serious concerns regarding the approach of Facebook India management in the 2019 General Elections.

Ravishankar Prasad in his letter to Facebook CEO, said, "Media has pointed out that Facebook India team from MD to senior officials are dominated by those who belong to a particular political belief." He added, "Facebook is the latest tool in the arsenal to strike internal division and social disturbances. It's problematic to see when Indian Facebook senior officials are on record abusing PM and other senior cabinet ministers."

Mr Prasad added that there was a concerted effort by the Facebook management in the country during the last General Elections to pages and substantially reduce outreach of posts which were supportive of the right-of-centre ideology. Referring to the instances of bias by the social media platform, he said that the management did not even respond to the messages seeking remedial measures over the issue.

Mr Prasad said that the collusion of a group of Facebook employees with International media is giving a free run to malevolent vested interests to cast aspersions on the democratic process of the country. He also emphatically pointed out the usage of the social media platform on multiple instances by anarchic and radical elements with a sole aim to destroy the social order.

The IT Minister also stressed the need to do away with the practice of outsourcing the job of fact-checking by the social media platform to unverified and incredulous agencies.