Facebook's role in the spread of hate speech in India
Current Affairs
A new report by the Wall Street Journal highlighted Facebook’s role in the spread of hate speech in India.
As per the leaked documents obtained by The Associated Press, Facebook struggles with moderation of hate speech, misinformation and celebration of violence in India.
The internal researchers at Facebook claim that there are groups and pages that are filled with inflammatory and misleading anti-Muslim content.
300% spike in hate content before the Delhi riots
As per a July 2020 report, during months following December 2019, when the Anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests began, provoking content on Facebook rose by 300% compared to previous levels.
Rumours and calls to violence spread on WhatsApp, particularly in late February 2020, and one report has linked this content to the Delhi riots, which killed 53 people.
Dozens of users in India interviewed
Concerned about its services being tied to communal riots and conflict, Facebook’s internal researchers interviewed over dozens of users in India.
While a Hindu man in Delhi stated that he frequently received “dangerous” messages on Facebook and Whatsapp, such as “Hindus are in danger, Muslims are about to kill us,”, a Muslim man from Mumbai said that there’s so much hatred on Facebook that it was really scary and he feared for his life.
Reports show that Facebook was aware of the reality
The reports show that Facebook was aware of the inflammatory content its users were being subjected to. However, despite the harm that can be caused, Facebook overlooked the recommendations from the reports and researchers.
Content from RSS not being flagged because the content is in Hindi or Bangla
In a report early this year, the researchers found that a lot of the content by users, groups and pages from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh group (RSS) is never flagged, because the content is either in Hindi and Bengali, and the company lacks sufficient technical systems to detect content in those languages.
As per the document, Facebook hasn’t designated the RSS for removal “given political sensitivities”.
Flagged “TAKEDOWN”, still active
Another report by the researchers says that Bajrang Dal used WhatsApp to “organize and incite violence”. The group was considered for designation as a dangerous group, which would have resulted in a permanent ban and takedown. The group is still active on the platform.
Soon after this report came out earlier this year, Facebook India’s then public policy head declined to comment but stepped down from her position in a few weeks.
Intensified by features and algorithms
Facebook not only saw India as one of the most “at-risk” countries but also identified both Hindi and Bengali languages as a priority for “automation on violating hostile speech” and yet failed to have enough local language moderators and content flagging in place to stop misinformation.
Facebook’s response
While the company declined to comment on the activities of the Hindu nationalist groups, its spokesperson, Andy Stone said,
“We’ve invested significantly in technology to find hate speech in various languages, including Hindi and Bengali. As a result, we’ve reduced the amount of hate speech that people see by half this year. Today, it’s down to 0.05%. Hate speech against marginalized groups, including Muslims, is on the rise globally. So we are improving enforcement and are committed to updating our policies as hate speech evolves online.”
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