Ex-Facebook employee to depose before Delhi Assembly committee

The committee is probing allegations against the social media giant of political bias

Facebook-Whistleblower Representational Image

Mark S. Luckie, a former Facebook Inc. employee, has agreed to depose before the Delhi Assembly’s Peace and Harmony Committee that is probing allegations against the social media giant of political bias.

Luckie had left Facebook in November, 2018 after claiming that it inculcates a misguided work system within the company which has led to division in communities especially by the actions and inactions of the company.

It is for the first time that an international Facebook employee has come forward to depose before a committee in India.

Luckie, a digital strategist, former journalist and author, and an employee at Facebook Inc. from 2017 till 2018, will appear before the committee headed by MLA Raghav Chadha on November ten.

Luckie has published a memo where he has pointed out that Minorities are finding that their attempts to create “safe spaces” on Facebook for conversation among themselves are being derailed by the platform itself. Non-black people are reporting what are meant to be positive efforts as hate speech, despite them often not violating Facebook’s terms of service. Their content is removed without notice. Accounts are suspended indefinitely, he has written.

The memo was removed by Facebook citing that it violated its community standards. Significantly, some of the witnesses who deposed before the committee―Awesh Tiwari and Pratik Sinha―have also alleged similar issues where Facebook has been biased while treating the content of persons who have been critical of the ruling dispensation.

The proceedings of the committee on November 10 will be open to the media and will also be live-streamed.

Facebook India Vice President Ajit Mohan and Facebook had moved the Supreme Court on September 22 challenging the notices issued by the Delhi Assembly Committee on September 10 and September 18 with regard to allegations of political bias and the social media platform’s alleged role in the communal riots in the capital in February this year.

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