Faizah Gilani
The popular social media networking site Facebook has been hit with yet another controversy. Frances Haugen, a former employee, has claimed that Facebook was aware of provocative anti- Muslim content posted on its platform in India, but took little action to prevent it.
The whistle-blower, a former product manager on the site’s civic misinformation team, referred to internal records and thousands of documents that she secretly copied before leaving Facebook, back in May.
Haugen stated that there were “a number of posts comparing Muslims to pigs and dogs, and misinformation claiming the Quran calls for men to rape their female family members.” She also referred to “fear-mongering content” promoted by RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) users, groups and pages.
But due to the company’s lack of Hindi and Bengali classifiers, no action is taken. Classifiers refer to algorithms that detect hate speech. This may be the case, but it does not absolve the company of responsibility. Rise in Islamophobia and hate crimes against Muslims have been on the rise, and social media has played a part in it.
Details from this latest controversy should come as no surprise. India has become the hub for fake news and disinformation, which has been exposed by the EU DisinfoLab. Dubbed the “Indian Chronicles,” the investigation exposed a 15-year long operation to serve India’s interests by resurrecting dead think tanks, NGOs and even individuals. The main purpose of the network has been to discredit Pakistan.
And now the hatred has spilled over into India itself. Hatred towards its minorities, Muslims in particular, is being fuelled by Hindu nationalists turning against its own people. It cannot be denied that hate crimes against Muslims have soared under Modi’s leadership. Muslim men have been physically targeted, forced to chant ‘jai Shri Ram,’ and lynched over suspicion of eating beef, and even accused of Love Jihad – an outrageous conspiracy theory.
These hate crimes may be committed by bigots on the streets, but they have been emboldened by those sitting in parliament. The RSS narrative is the foundation of the ruling party, BJP (Bhartiya Janata Party), which explains a lot about the rise of India’s hate crimes and Islamophobia, in recent times.
Members of the ruling party have normalised bigotry with its brazen anti-Muslim rhetoric and inflammatory statements. And with its controversial Citizen’s Amendment Act, the government has further marginalised a minority group. The secular mask is gradually slipping off, exposing a very dark side to India.
There are, however, people within India that are resisting, standing tall against intolerance and hatred. Sadly, the sane voices are being drowned out by those that choose to stoke divisions and create a toxic environment that is making life difficult for minorities.
The frightening part is that the dehumanisation of Muslims stems from those that should be doing more to protect its minorities. Prime Minister Modi’s silence over the hostile environment makes him responsible for whatever has been happening, but he knows exactly what his base wants.
Hindutva ideologists from Modi’s base are enjoying BJP ministers fanning the flames of hate, and it is happening on social media platforms. Social media is now being used as a tool for hate mongering, and nothing substantial is being done to counter it. The biggest reason behind this is money. With over 530 million users, India is the largest market for Facebook. So, it is not difficult to understand why Facebook is soft on its biggest market.
One would think that with the latest revelation from a former employee, Facebook would find itself in hot water. But that is not the case. Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg should be held to account, but like previous controversies, he will most likely evade accountability.
And this will not be the first time. The Russian influence campaign and Cambridge Analytica scandal are just a couple of examples of how the co-founder has survived controversy without being held to account. Mark Zuckerberg may have all the wealth in the world, but he has proven himself to be morally bankrupt.
His arrogant and dismissive approach towards all the scandals has been hard to stomach, but Facebook is being misused to promote deplorable behaviour and Indian Muslims are facing the brunt of a hate campaign, which Facebook is enabling by not taking the appropriate action.
Facebook and other social media platforms have been guilty of silencing activists that use the platform to highlight issues such as Kashmir and Palestine. Activists have complained of their accounts being suspended over posts that are seen as violating the terms of the site. But when it comes to the fake news and anti -Muslim content, the same rules do not apply. This is simply a glaring example of Facebook’s double standards.
Social media is a powerful tool and can be used for many positive things. But if misused, can be extremely dangerous. We are now living in times where social media has become such an integral part of our daily lives and many of us find ourselves unable to function without it on a daily basis. But something has to be done to ensure that the platforms are not used for malicious intent.
These big tech companies are driven by money and lack of interest in accountability, and the situation is getting out of hand. This is a global issue, and the world community should take this seriously. The misuse of social media platforms can lead to violence and unrest. We are witnessing this in India, with fake news targeted at its Muslim community, and contributing to communal tensions. These platforms cannot be allowed to put people in harms way.
All we need to do is cast our minds back to the attack on Capitol Hill, in January 2021. Irresponsible tweets by former president Donald Trump inciting his supporters led to a frightening situation for everyone present in congress. This resulted in Donald Trump’s ban from twitter, after it came under immense pressure to act.
This is a high-profile example of social media being abused. Trump’s recklessness on the social media platform led to chaos. But recklessness continues on social media, and it will carry on like a vicious cycle. Some might argue that this will lead to censorship or curtailing of free speech. Freedom of speech is something that should be valued, as it is scarce in some parts of the world.
But People often forget that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences. People should be held to account for what they say online, if it is potentially harmful in any way. And it is about time that those sitting pretty high up in big tech companies also face accountability. They cannot just reap the benefits of their brand, without being questioned for their inability to make it a platform safe. Getting big companies such as Facebook to take responsibility seems unlikely and not an ordinary task. But somehow it has to be done.
The writer has studied History and Politics at Queen Mary, University of London. And Near and Middle East Studies at SOAS, University of London.
