March 7, 2019
NEW DELHI: The Indian parliamentary panel looking into concerns over misuse
of social media and the dangers of fake news on the eve of parliamentary elections
in the country has had a meeting with officials of Facebook.
Facebook global policy chief Joel Kaplan and India head Ajit Mohan attended
the meeting with the parliamentary committee on information technology as scheduled
on Wednesday.
The panel categorically told the social media giant that they needed to curb
spread of misinformation via new media.
Meanwhile, Facebook had introduced stricter rules for political advertisements
in India.
Its WhatsApp messenger service, which has more than 200 million users in India,
has also started taking action to prevent harmful messages from getting circulated.
Facebook was told to ensure that its platforms are not misused by vested interests
or any foreign powers to influence elections in the country. The committee also
asked the company to help security agencies track any malicious campaigns.
Earlier, the panel had a meeting with Twitter officials too on the issue.
