IT minister Writes To Zuckerberg: Facebook Employees Abusing PM

On Tuesday, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote to Mark Zuckerberg accusing employees of helping people from a political predisposition who lost in the elections and are abusing the Prime Minister and senior ministers of the cabinet. He said that 'Facebook is the latest tool for some people to stoke internal divisions and social disturbances.'

IT Minister said that there have been "multiple instances recently where Facebook has been used by anarchic and radical elements whose sole aim is to destroy social order, recruit people and assemble them for violence. However, we are yet to see any meaningful action against such elements. Is this action also held back by the same vested interest groups who have an incentive in stoking political violence and instability in India?"

He further added that, "I have been informed that in the run up to 2019 general elections in India, there was a concerted effort by Facebook India management to not just delete pages or substantially reduce their reach but also offer no recourse or right of appeal to affected people who are supportive of right-of-centre ideology."

Facebook has come up with a latest update amid the ongoing pressure that FB and Twitter are facing by various governments to police content on their platforms. India, Australia, and the US users on Tuesday received a notification on their Facebook app about the update that says, “We also can remove or restrict access to your content, services, or information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts to Facebook.”

A Facebook spokesperson said that, "This global update provides more flexibility for us to change our services, including in Australia, to continue to operate and support our users in response to potential regulation or legal action."