The Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeITY) is understood to have sought clarification from the forum following recent revelations made by whistle-blower Frances Hogen.
These revelations have given rise to concerns that Facebook has done little to undermine its ‘growth at all cost’ culture, which has gone on to capture 2.91 billion monthly active users globally, including over 400 million in India. Turbocharged its growth.
Researchers at the social media giant had pointed out that according to US media reports, there are groups and pages on its platform “filled with inflammatory and misleading anti-Muslim content”.
According to sources close to the developments, MeitY has written to Facebook seeking information about the algorithms and processes used by the platform.
He said the government has also asked Facebook to give details of the steps it has taken to protect users.
When contacted, Facebook declined to comment.
As of May 2021, Haugen, an employee of Facebook’s integrity team, leaked thousands of internal documents, including employee discussion sites, company presentations and research papers, that have exposed the inner workings of Facebook.
She suggested that Facebook made changes to its “dangerous” algorithms that contributed to divisions in society, and felt that these changes drove people back to the platform.
It has also filed eight complaints against the company with the US securities regulator.
The latest revelations are significant as the social media giant has been under the lens for the past several years for not doing enough to curb hate speech on its platform and protect its users’ data.
In return, Facebook has sought to portray Haugen as cherry-picking a junior employee to fit his own narrative, with little knowledge of some of the issues he considered. Is.
On Saturday, The New York Times said that in February 2019, a Facebook researcher created a new user account to see what the social media website would look like for a person living in Kerala.
For the next three weeks, the account all followed recommendations generated by Facebook’s algorithms for joining groups, watching videos, and locating new pages on the site. The result was documented in an internal Facebook report that showed the company’s biggest market, the country, struggled with misinformation, hate speech and celebrations of violence, according to the NYT report.
The documents are part of a larger collection of material collected by Haugen, who recently testified before the Senate about the company and its platforms.
A Facebook spokesperson said that Facebook has halved the amount of hate speech people see around the world this year.
According to figures cited by the Indian government earlier this year, there are 53 crore WhatsApp users, 41 crore Facebook subscribers and 21 crore Instagram account holders in the country.
It is pertinent to mention here that India introduced new IT intermediary rules earlier this year, aimed at bringing more accountability to large tech companies, including Twitter and Facebook.
The rules require social media platforms to remove any content flagged by authorities within 36 hours and to set up a robust grievance redressal mechanism with an officer based in the country. Social media companies must remove posts showing nudity or morphed photos within 24 hours of receiving a complaint.
Important social media companies – which have over five million users – are also required to publish monthly compliance reports detailing complaints received and action taken, as well as content that is actively removed.
According to sources, the IT ministry will soon issue ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQs) around the intermediary guidelines to enable better understanding of the goals and provisions of the new rules among various stakeholders, including users.
Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajiv Chandrasekhar is believed to be leading the initiative on the proposed FAQ.
Sources said the FAQs will further the overall objective of ensuring that the Indian internet is seen as safe for consumers and attractive for investment by investors.
Simply put, the FAQ will include questions that people ask about the rules, and is designed to make it easier for users to understand the norms of the Internet and social media in India.
In general, there may be questions related to what the guidelines mean to the public and intermediaries, how they protect users, who to contact with complaints, and the role of compliance and grievance officers. It will also create awareness about the rights of users and obligations of the platforms.
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