Social media giant Facebook ignored a summons from the Delhi Assembly's Committee on Peace and Harmony for a senior official to appear before it on Tuesday.
Last week, the Delhi Assembly Committee on Peace and Harmony, headed by AAP MLA Raghav Chadha, had issued the summons to Facebook India vice president and managing director Ajit Mohan.
Mohan was summoned by the committee over complaints about Facebook's alleged deliberate and intentional inaction to contain hateful content in the country. The committee had sought that Facebook be impleaded as a co-accused in the case of the Delhi riots that happened in February this year.
NDTV reported that Facebook skipped the hearing of the Committee on Peace and Harmony on the grounds that company executives had appeared before a Parliamentary panel.
A statement from Facebook to the committee said "the officials had already deposed before the committee of MPs earlier this month and since Parliament was seized of the matter, the Delhi Assembly committee should withdraw its summons."
Chadha termed Facebook's action to skip the hearing an "insult and contempt". "This is an issue of Delhi; how can Facebook say that it's not the domain of this committee? Facebook's statement that Parliament is seized of the matter is untenable. The state legislature functions independent of Parliament. Your refusal to appear before this committee is an attempt to conceal the role (of Facebook) in the Delhi riots," the committee was quoted as saying by NDTV.
The panel said it would send a "final warning" to Facebook for missing the hearing.
"Facebook's letter is in disregard of committee's privilege. Facebook's refusal to appear before the committee is an attempt to conceal crucial facts in relation to its role in Delhi riots. Fresh summons will be issued to it in line with principles of natural justice," Chadha was quoted as saying by ANI.
On September 3, members of the Parliamentary standing committee on information and technology questioned Facebook officials over allegations it had favoured the BJP and not acted to curb inflammatory content.
