This means social media giant believes India is potentially as bad as Myanmar and Sri Lanka where Facebook has been used to ignite and sustain inter-religious violence.

According to a report by Wall Street Journal, this year the social-media company’s safety team deemed Bajrang Dal supported violence against minorities across India and likely qualified as a “dangerous organisation” that should be banned from the platform.

However Facebook hasn’t taken any action to remove the groups from Facebook because internal security audit teams at the company believe that this may anger these groups and they may target business, offices and Facebook staff in India.

The WSJ report believes that such conflicting concerns underscore the struggle Facebook faces in curbing hate speech that spread like a wild fire through the platform. Facebook has recently invested $5.7 billion in a new retail venture in India which makes the issue more difficult because a lot of groups and people indulging in it are close to the ruling party BJP.

The social- media company fears strict actions against such hate-mongering group will impact their business. However, the WSJ was told by a Facebook spokesperson that the company’s policy on hate speech is not influenced by political or business reasons. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told the WSJ, “We enforce our Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy globally without regard to a political position or party affiliation.”

This is not the first time Facebook is dragging its feet on tackling hate speech in a country. The company has come under fire for not acting against hate speech in nations like Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. Two years ago investigators from United Nations cited Facebook for facilitating hate speech in Myanmar, helping fuel the sectarian violence against Rohingyas.

Several months ago, Facebook was in spotlight in India for all the wrong reasons as it was reported that its then India Policy Ankhi Das stopped staffers from taking action against hate speech by BJP politicians. Facebook refuted the report, but in late October Ankhi Das left the company saying she wanted to “pursue public service interests”.

Facebook’s India MD Ajit Mohan has been called for a hearing by a Delhi government committee that is looking into the use of social media during riots earlier in the year. However, Mohan has refused to appear before the committee and has challenged the Delhi government directives in the Supreme Court.

The post Facebook fears India on the verge of high social violence appeared first on The Gulf Indians.

Mike Pompeo has already arrived in New Delhi and he was accompanied by his wife Susan.

The visiting dignitaries will be hosted by Rajnath Singh and Jaishankar for dinner. It is expected that the two sides may finalise the long-pending Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement (BECA) agreement to further boost bilateral defence ties. They will also call on Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the stay in the national capital.

The signing of the agreement would allow the United States to share precision satellite and topographical data from its constellation of military satellites on a real-time basis.

China defense cooperation, foundational agreements and other regional issues will be the prime focus of the meeting.

“We have made significant progress towards concluding the last foundational defence enabling agreement – the Basic Exchange and Cooperation Agreement or BECA,” senior officials of the Trump administration said last week in an online news briefing.

“This agreement will allow for expanded geospatial information sharing between our Armed Forces. We are also seeking to expand secure communication capabilities between our respective militaries as well as between our foreign defence ministries and that figures prominently in what we are trying to accomplish in the information-sharing space,” they added.

Pompeo will also travel to Sri Lanka and the Maldives. These countries were struggling with a mountain of Chinese debt incurred to finance big infrastructure projects. The visit also assumes importance on the backdrop of China’s expansionist designs in the region.

Pompeo will conclude his trip in Indonesia, a week before the US presidential election, which is also locked in territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea.

The post India US bilateral talks on October 27 appeared first on The Gulf Indians.