New Delhi, September 3: Amid the political chaos over bias and hate speech on the social media platform, Facebook on Thursday wrote a reply to Congress secretary in-charge of organisation KC Venugopal and stated that they are non-partisan and strive to ensure that their platforms remain a space where people express themselves freely. Facebook also stated that they take allegations of bias seriously and denounce hate and bigotry in all forms.

Responding to back to KC Venugopal, Facebook's Public Policy Director Neil Potts issued a statement and said, "First and foremost, we want to take this opportunity to state that we are non-partisan and strive to ensure our platforms remain a space where people express themselves freely. We take allegations of bias seriously and want to make clear that we denounce hate and bigotry in all forms." Facebook Bans BJP Leader T Raja Singh For Violating Hate Speech Policy.

On the issue of hate speech by political leaders, Potts stated, "On the question of hateful content by public figures, we want to assure you that our Community Standards probit attacks against people based on their protected characteristics, including religion, caste, ethnicity and national origin." Adding more, the Facebook Director said, "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."

Here's what Neil Potts said:

Earlier, Congress leader KC Venugopal had written to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg reiterating Congress' demand for stopping the alleged nexus between the social media platform and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. He had cited an appeared in Time magazine and stated that the magazine revealed evidence of biases and a quid-pro-quo relationship of Facebook India with the BJP.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 03, 2020 03:37 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).