The chorus against Facebook and its alleged inaction against cases of hate speech has grown louder, with fresh departures from the company. On Tuesday, Washington Post reported that US Facebook software engineer Ashok Chandwaney, of South Asian descent, has been the latest exit from the organisation. "I am quitting because I can no longer stomach contributing to an organisation that is profiting off hate in the US and globally," wrote Chandwaney, in a letter posted on Facebook's internal employee network, reported the publication.
Chandwaney, 28, said he realised over time that the company's leadership was focused on profits over promoting social good. "The company has done too little to combat the rise on the platform of racism, disinformation and incitements to violence," Chandwaney said. The Post reported that Chandwaney specifically cited the company's role in "fuelling genocide in Myanmar" and, more recently, violence in Kenosha in the US. He cited Facebook's refusal to remove President Donald Trump's post from May saying "when the looting starts, the shooting starts". "There have been so many comments that have been PR fluff rather than substantive," Chandwaney said in the interview to The Post.
Facebook has been facing a lot of issues around its handling of hate speech, especially in India. Employees of Facebook are questioning the social media platform's handling of hate speech and political content, and whether the policies were circumvented by company executives in India. With 300 million users, India is among its largest markets. News agency pti said employees have been raising questions around the issue on various groups on Facebook's internal network. These include discussions around the WSJ article, questions around the company's stance on the issue and whether rules were indeed bent in this matter, they said.
In the company townhall held earlier, most questions revolved around this matter. Sources said most questions were around people wanting to know Facebook's position on how political content is handled in India and whether the policies laid out around content regulations were being followed.
"Facebook is and always has been an open, transparent and non-partisan platform where people can express themselves freely. Over the last few days, we have been accused of bias in the way we enforce our policies. We take allegations of bias incredibly seriously, and want to make it clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in any form," Facebook India Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Mohan said in a blog post.
