India's main opposition Congress party called on Sunday for a parliamentary committee to be formed to investigate what it described as positive treatment by the Facebook team in India toward the country's ruling party.
The party told the Wall Street Journal on Friday, according to Reuters, that Facebook and WhatsApp employees who oversee Indian content refused to prevent the publication of provocative comments from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party on the platform to protect the company's "business interests." Facebook deleted the comments on the post instead of deleting the post itself.
Facebook said it prohibits hate speech and content that incites violence and enforces these policies on a global level regardless of anyone's political position or party affiliation.
"While we know that more needs to be done, we are making progress in implementation and conducting regular audits of our process to ensure integrity and accuracy," the company said in a statement.
Facebook considers India as the largest market for its services with 400 million users, and the US company is awaiting regulatory approvals to launch the electronic payment platform, and it has invested $ 5.7 billion in Reliance Industries' digital unit with the aim of serving tens of millions of small stores across India.
"The Congress party is calling for the formation of a joint parliamentary committee to investigate the relations of Facebook and WhatsApp employees with the ruling party," Congress spokesman Ajay McCain said in a press briefing. McCain also urged the company to initiate an internal investigation into the Indian oversight team.