Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reportedly quoted BJP leader Kapil Mishra’s controversial speech made in February, allegedly linked to the Delhi riots, as an example for ‘incitement of violence’ as per Facebook’s community guidelines.
In a meeting with almost 25,000 employees on June 2, Zuckerberg spoke about what constitutes social media incitement. Although, he didn’t mention Mishra’s name, the quote he cited refers to what Mishra said in his speech in February:
The Vox quoted Zuckerberg as saying, ‘There have been cases in India, for example, where someone said, ‘Hey, if the police don’t take care of this, our supporters will get in there and clear the streets.’ That is kind of encouraging supporters to go do that in a more direct way, and we took that down. So we have a precedent for that.‘
The transcript of Zuckerberg’s meeting with employees has been accessed through the leaked audio on Recode.
The online meeting was held to discuss Facebook’s handling of the US President Donald Trump’s posts, which have been criticised for glorifying violence.
The meeting was called to address the issue that has led to strong criticism of Zuckerberg in the past few days from his employees.
The company decided not to take down the controversial posts by President Donald Trump with respect to the ongoing Black Lives Matter protests, where he called for strict actions against those indulging in violence during the protests, saying, ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’.
The alleged reference to Mishra’s speech was quoted as an example by Zuckerberg in a video call address to his employees to show how the social media giant has actively responded when it comes to snub hate speech.
Mishra responded to Zuckerberg on Twitter, saying that this would nowhere affect the imposition of CAA, and that in any case, CAA will not be revoked.
जुकरबर्ग का झुनझुना लेकर नाचने वालोंCAA फिर भी वापस नहीं होगा ️
— Kapil Mishra (@KapilMishra_IND) June 7, 2020
Around mid-February, during Trump’s visit to India, Mishra had given a three-day ‘ultimatum’ to the Delhi police to evict anti-CAA protesters, who were blocking a road at the Jafrabad Metro Station.
He also posted videos on Twitter, where he was heard saying, ‘We will maintain peace until Donald Trump is in India. After that, if the roads are not cleared, we will not even listen to the police.’
