Social media giant Facebook on September 4 said that it has removed ‘hateful content’ posted by public figures in India on its platform and will continue doing so in the future as well.

In a reply to a letter written by Congress party’s general secretary KC Venugopal, Facebook’s Director of Public Policy Neil Potts assured that the company will take corrective measures.

‘In line with our hate speech policy, we have removed and will continue to remove hateful content by public figures in India on our platforms,’ Facebook said in the reply.

On September 3, Facebook banned BJP’s Telangana MLA T Raja Singh who is accused of propagating hate speech on the social media platform. Under increasing pressure for weeks over its handling of hate speech and extremist content, Facebook on Thursday said it has banned Raja Singh from its platform and Instagram for violating its policy on content promoting violence and hate.

Responding to charges against Facebook India leadership, Neil Potts said, ‘We have a team with deep expertise on terrorism and organised hate, who pay attention to global and regional trends and advise on these matters. These decisions are not made unilaterally by any one person, rather, they are inclusive of different views from teams around the company, a process that is critical to making sure we consider, understand, and account for both the local and global contexts.’

Meanwhile, the Congress party has welcomed the move.

‘We have today received a response. Facebook has thanked the Congress party for raising this concern and acknowledged its seriousness while not refuting any of the charges made against individuals of the Facebook India leadership team in the media articles,’ Pravin Chakravorty, head of Congress party’s Data Analytics Cell said.

‘They have also expressed their desire to be non-partisan and continue to engage with the Congress party on these matters,’ he said.

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