Facebook row
Facebook India moves SC against Delhi Assembly Panel's notice
New Delhi/IBNS: Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan has moved the Supreme Court against a notice from the Delhi Assembly's "Peace and Harmony" Committee over the social media platform's alleged involvement in the violence that struck the national capital in February.
A three-member bench of the apex court-comprising Justices SK Kaul, Aniruddha Bose and Krishna Murari- will hear the petition via video conferencing.
Mohan will be represented by former Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.
In his petition, Mohan said the Delhi Assembly's committee could not compel him to appear before it, since the same issue was already being heard by a parliamentary panel.
On Sunday the panel had sent a fresh and "final" summon to Facebook India, to appear before it over allegations of "deliberate inaction on the part of (the) social media platform to apply hate speech rules".
Mohan has been asked to appear before the same on Wednesday.
He had snubbed all his earlier summons by the panel.
The committee's decision to summon the social media giant comes over complaints of "deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content" in the country.
The committee on ‘Peace and Harmony’ was set up after Delhi saw the worst riots in decades over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA in February this year.
Earlier this month, Mohan was questioned for more than three hours over hate speech allegations by Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology chaired by Congress's Shashi Tharoor, which considers issues like social media abuse.
The entire row started after US publication Wall Street Journal reported Facebook had ignored the hate-speech posts, favouring the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook's senior executive Ankhi Das took the call of "deliberately ignoring" hate speech by BJP leaders.
The Journal reported that she had said that punishing violations by BJP workers "would damage the company's business prospects in the country."
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