Facebook Director receives death threats for 'favouring' BJP

After the recent Facebook-BJP controversy, top Facebook officials have been receiving death threats for allegedly favouring the leading political party of India.

Ankhi Das, Director, Public Policy, India, South andCentral Asia said people have been sending her death threats and have been posting/circulating obscene messages about her. She filed a complaint with theCyber Cell of Delhi Police on Monday, August 17. She said the threats began after August 14.

Delhi Police has started investigating the matter and will be first investigating the 5-6 people Das mentioned in her complaint.

Das has been receiving threats after American dailyWall Street Journal published a report accusing Facebook of letting the ministers of the ruling party of India post hate messages only to maintain good a relationship with the party leaders. Wall Street Journal alleged that Facebook ignored its hate speech policy when it came to the leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The article titled 'Facebook’s Hate-Speech Rules Collide With Indian Politics' was published on August 14, a day before India celebrated its 74th Independence Day.

Facebook denied the accusations after the article was published."We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone's political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," a Facebook spokesperson said.

Rahul Gandhi also shared the Wall Street Journal article on Twitter saying, "BJP & RSS control Facebook & Whatsapp in India. They spread fake news and hatred through it and use it to influence the electorate. Finally, the American media has come out with the truth about Facebook."