'Facebook needs to be quizzed': Congress writes to Zuckerberg

New Delhi: The Congress on Tuesday wrote to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, accusing Facebook India of "interfering" with the country's electoral democracy, and demanded a time-bound high level inquiry into the conduct of Facebook India leadership team, and their operations.

In a letter to Zuckerberg, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal also demanded that pending the internal investigation and submission of the report, the company should "consider a new team to lead Facebook India operations so as to not influence the probe".

The Congress and other opposition parties have attacked the social media giant after a US media report alleged that Facebook did not apply its hate speech rules on BJP leaders.

In its response, Facebook on Monday said the company's social media platform prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence, adding these policies are enforced globally without regard to political affiliation.

However, Facebook, which counts India among its largest markets globally, acknowledged that "there is more to do".

The Shiv Sena sought action "irrespective of party affiliations" against those who spread hatred and talk of disintegrating the country on social media platforms like Facebook.

Companies like Facebook can't ignore someone spreading hatred because the persons belongs to the ruling party, the Sena said and asked the social media platform to observe rules and ethics of business.