NEW DELHI: Delhi summoned Facebook's India director on Saturday to respond to allegations that the social media giant failed to remove dangerous content from its largest global market.
India is the US-based company and its messaging service WhatsApp is the largest market in terms of users, and the company is under pressure around the world for surveillance of hate speech.
Facebook has been embroiled in a major dispute in India after the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported in August that the site failed to remove anti-Muslim comments by a politician from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to protect his business. interests.
The Delhi Assembly panel on peace and harmony said on Saturday it would investigate the evidence, described by the committee as "proprietary incriminating material", presented by four prominent journalists and digital rights activists.
The committee has asked Ajit Mohan, managing director of Facebook India, to appear before it on September 15 to determine the "veracity of the allegations" made by the group.
It follows American civil rights groups who claimed last week that the company had not addressed hateful content in India and demanded that its chief of policy in India, Ankhi Das, be removed from office.
Facebook has denied any political bias, but admitted that it has to do better to curb hate speech.
The panel, headed by Raghav Chadha, a lawmaker from a party that rivals Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP, also said the firm should be investigated for its "alleged role and complicity" in the Delhi sectarian riots in February.
Around 50 people, most of them Muslims, were killed in the worst riots in years between India's Hindu majority and the Muslim minority.
After the furor over the WSJ's August report, Facebook blocked T. Raja Singh, a BJP lawmaker who had said that Rohingya Muslim refugees from Myanmar should be shot.
Singh told AFP that he would fight the ban and that Facebook's action was an attack on BJP.
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