Facebook's Relationship With The Ruling Government

                

Today we will tell you a story and since this story is grabbing headlines, there are several characters in this story their spice, there's money, there's a plot. There are a lot of aspects- protagonists, villains and characters- all of whom I'll tell you about. This is the story of the "Government Facebook" 

THE STORY BEGINS

                               
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First of all, you should meet this person he is T Raja Singh, he is a rising BJP star on the social media and he is a champion of the philosophy of politics today and that is- Let us not talk about useless issues like development let us talk about what should be done with the Rohingya Muslims or love jihad instead. T Raja Singh uses Facebook and social media to voice that Rohingyas should be eliminated and how the Muslims should be treated. etc. etc. Facebook was observing all of this and if you don't know, but there's a team on Facebook that oversees who is posting wrong content. They also have a policy for hate speeches like this. They said that T Raja Singh... Imagine, even they said that this was out of line So, when they felt this was way out of line, they said that accounts of T Raja Singh and three other leaders of the BJP party should be banned as their posts fell under the dangerous category. 

So, Facebook categorized them as posts that could lead to loss of life. If Facebook feels offended and people have violated facebook's guidelines- their account should be deleted. This is where the Wall Street Journal Article comes in and says that there's such a deep friendship between Facebook and the ruling party BJP because Ankhi Das- (Policy head of Facebook-India) said that this should not be done(that is, their accounts should not be suspended) and that if they would do so then their business in the country would suffer. So, basically, the Wall street journal article has stated these allegations against Facebook which is trending worldwide that despite mocking their very own Facebook rules and guidelines despite being flagged down by their very own people Facebook did not delete these people because they had links with the ruling party and as a matter of fact, Facebook has not even denied this news. Andy Stone, the spokesperson of Facebook has admitted this that Ankhi Das, who had nothing to do with this whole issue told him that doing this might result in an extremely severe political blowback. Although Facebook's spokesperson also said that there might be some other reasons due to which these people have not been deleted for mocking Facebook's guidelines and their accounts have been allowed to remain active. 

                              
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What those "other reasons" are have not been told to us but you guys are smart enough to imagine those reasons. Had this been an isolated incident, then we could have overlooked it and that these people have not have been deleted due to some policy decisions, But the Wall Street Journal goes a step further and having talked to the former employees of Facebook, takes out a long list of how Facebook has given space to some hate elements and some pro-government elements to spread their propaganda further. This means that the information that trickles down to you on Facebook through friends, acquaintances and groups is actually being forced to you- that's how it is being served and this is how your mind is being brainwashed. Wall Street Journal has listed some other examples like this How Muslims are intentionally spreading Corona in our country How "love jihad" is a campaign to destroy India and how the algorithm pushes forward the pro-government voices during the elections and how the dissenting voices are suppressed. 

There are allegations regarding all of this in the Wall Street Journal quoting and sourcing from former employees T Raja Singh is just one person. There are many more such instances, For example, Anant Kumar Hegde Ji has also been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, He declined to talk to Wall Street Journal but the fact is that he too, was a champion of corona jihad. He wrote a multitude of articles and posts on social media handles to tell the people that they (the government) were doing such an impressive job and that they have "bashed corona" But these people are spreading corona jihad. India is on its way to becoming number 1 in corona cases because of them. Look at how independent Facebook is When the Wall Street Journal questioned them about Anant Kumar Hegde then they deleted some of his posts in a quickness. This friendship is not based on only one instance or only one person this is a trend- a chain of events- that is emerging.

FACEBOOKS FRIENDSHIP WITH THE RULING PARTIES

Furthermore, Saket Gokhale, who is an RTI activist, has put forward a more serious allegation as far as Ankhi Das is concerned because he alleges that Rashmi Das who was the former JNU president of ABVP had justified the attack on JNU. Rashmi Ji has also written an article on moneycontrol.com where the partnership and the investment of Facebook in Jio are being lauded. Who is this Rashmi Das? She is Ankhi Das's sister According to Saket Gokhale there's nothing illegal in this information that has surfaced but had this been in America, then there would have been a conflict of interest investigation definitely But this is India. So now the question is- were we totally unaware of this? Were all the journalists and politicians fast asleep while Facebook was building this friendship. Actually, this was kind of an "open secret" in India Several political parties and politicians are aware of this you would not believe but this issue has even reached the Parliament Hear it out- 
"Facebook senior management in India are de facto campaign managers for the BJP Facebook's Delhi office is virtually an extended BJP IT cell And I am saying this with all responsibility Facebook censored anti-BJP news and put other parties in jeopardy The Facebook algorithm censors anti-BJP content" Facebook was branded the campaign manager of BJP but Facebook didn't even bat an eyelid We did not get to see any response from Facebook So this was known to us and the media (counting those few ones who still have the nerve to speak ) and now the entire world is getting to know how deep this "friendship" and this "relationship" is Wow! What a brotherhood between Facebook and the government and this issue was not raised only by politicians- but by some journalists. Even before the 2019 elections, this concern on how Facebook was working to aid the government was raised Quickly summarizing some important things in this five-part series, how Facebook and WhatsApp are spreading misinformation which is leading to lynchings across India, how does Facebook help in furthering BJP's propaganda and how the messaged of rivals are suppressed to stop them from raising their voice How does Facebook benefit from all of this and who are the key individuals who are doing all of this What is the role of Cambridge Analytica and what was the Congress trying to do in collaboration with them and how they were trying to tap Facebook All of this I will talk about in my next article. 

Now, the entire world is talking about this via Wall Street Journal Hearing this might lead you to think that Anki Das might be in trouble and now questions would be raised on all that has been happening in Facebook, Are they the world's connecting page or some party's propaganda channel? Well, the problem is that nothing would happen to Ankhi Das because if this report reaches Zukerberg in America, then the conditions in America are no different He's doing the very same thing! look at how he was asked. This might be a new thing for you but there are Congressional hearings in America where even the big businessmen are asked and thoroughly questioned while the cameras are rolling. 

QUESTIONS FROM MARK ZUCKERBERG

                         
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Congressmen Cortez raises some simple questions Do they fact check fake news? And whether they would ever pull down those propagating hate on their platform. It is a simple question. Hear what Zuckerberg said, "In what year and month did you personally first become aware of Cambridge Analytica?" "Ummm... I'm not sure of the exact..." "When did Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg become aware of Cambridge Analytica?" "I don't know.. I've to talk..." "When was the issue discussed with your board member Peter Thiel?" "Congresswoman, I don't know that..." What kind of a centi billionaire is this Zuckerberg! He doesn't know anything! He is one of the world's richest men! How did he become so rich? Or is he hiding something "So, you won't take down lies or you will take down lies? I think is just a pretty simple Yes or No" "Congresswoman..." "I'm not talking about spam, I'm talking about actual misinformation" "Yes, in most cases, in a democracy, I believe that the people should be able to see for themselves what politicians that they may or may not vote for..." "So, you won't take them down?" "So, you may flag that  it's wrong but you won't take it down?" "Congresswoman... it depends on the context that it shows up or organic post..."(credits: the GUARDIAN) 
He was asked whether misinformation would be fact-checked or not There is no answer to that because that is what brings in influence. When engagement and people are arguing on the platform, it would bring in revenues and attract advertisers. This is the plot that is running- be it in America or India America has already realized the murky role of Facebook in their elections, there is also talks of Russian involvement the same ploy is not unfurling in India. It is only now that several advertisers in America have realized what game Facebook is onto and this is why they have begun pulling out They have stated that they will advertise on social media but not on Facebook. Another reason for this is that the rebellious Zukerberg who harbours the wrong attitude. 

FACEBOOK OR HATEBOOK?

                                    
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Not only do they not fact check hate, not only do they not suppress hate, they actually push forward the hate-mongering posts So, as a matter of fact, Facebook is acting as "Hatebook" And this is why Facebook is facing a lot of blowback in America. The truth today- Facebook is colluding with the governments and serving us misinformation and is not controlling misinformation and how they are minting profit by establishing brotherhood with the governments and is leading us to lose our minds. After this news broke and got published in the Wall Street Journal, Shashi Tharoor has said that this issue comes under the purview of our Parliamentary Panel on Information Technology and they would definitely question Facebook. 

CONCLUSION

It remains to be seen how the questioning will be conducted but he says that Facebook would definitely be summoned. In the end, I won't tell you to go boycott Facebook because we do not believe in telling someone to boycott or not. But we request to you is to become aware that these massive platforms- It would be our foolishness to assume that TV and newspapers can be controlled but can these massive platforms not be controlled despite such glaring evidence? So never believe one single source of information please take Facebook with a pinch of salt And do the same with WhatsApp. I keep telling you, they're birds of the same feather and have the same master. Observe how they are working to propagate hate And then decide for yourself which platform you want to trust and what kind of people you want to trust understand the game and how you are being brainwashed. Do tell us what you feel about it in the comment section.

ABHISHEK RAWAT
Content Writer
@DayLightMedia