Ankhi Das, Public Policy Director of Facebook India, Lodges Complaint against Violent Threats

Public policy director of Facebook India, South and Central Asia, Ankhi Das, has filed a complaint with the Delhi Police against a number of people who allegedly issued "violent threats" to her online.

Quoting from Das' complaint to the Cyber Cell of Delhi Police, a report in the Indian Express said that she stated she received "violent threats against my life and body through online posting/publishing of content."

An FIR in the matter is yet to be filed and the matter is under inquiry, a Delhi Police officer told IE.

Das alleged that she was intentionally vilified by the accused due to their "political affiliations" and are now engaging in online and offline abuse, subjecting her to "criminal intimidation and making sexually coloured remarks".

An August 14 article published in The Wall Street Journal claims that Das was opposed to applying Facebook's hate speech rules to four individuals and groups with links to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The article stated that despite being internally flagged for promoting violence, she was against applying the rules due to business imperatives.

The article expressed that Das had told staff individuals that rebuffing BJP lawmakers for these infringement



would be unfavorable to the "organization's business possibilities in the nation, Facebook's greatest worldwide market by number of clients."

In her complaint, Das mentioned Facebook and Twitter accounts that had allegedly threatened her - some even using her photos - and said that they were a result of the WSJ article.

The article "was further published in a mischaracterized and distorted manner in India by various publications and further widely circulated on social media," IE quoted from her complaint.

Meanwhile, a Facebook spokesperson told ANI, “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation. While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy."

The comments came as the ruling BJP and opposition Congress traded barbs over Facebook's alleged bias towards the ruling dipensation.

While BJP accused the social media giant of censoring nationalist voices, opposition Congress seized on the Wall Street Journal report that alleged that Facebook's content policies favour the ruling party.