New Delhi, August 19: The fight between the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over allegations that Facebook ignored hateful content of BJP leaders has intensified. On Wednesday, BJP lawmaker moved a notice for breach of privilege against Congress MPs Rahul Gandhi and Shashi Tharoor. This apparently was in retaliation of notice for breach of privilege moved against Dubey by Tharoor. Facebook, WhatsApp Controlled by BJP And RSS to Spread Fake News, Influence Voters in India: Rahul Gandhi on WSJ Report.

Tharoor, who heads the parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, alleged that Dubey made "disparaging remarks" on social media over his decision to summon a panel meeting to discuss alleged "misconduct" of Facebook after The Wall Street Journal report claimed that Facebook deliberately ignored hate speeches of BJP leaders despite flagged by the company's internal review team.

Dubey returned the favour by moving a notice for breach of privilege against Tharoor as well as Rahul Gandhi. The BJP MP alleged that Tharoor had "surpassed all limits of decency, ethics and basic tenets of parliamentary procedure" and Rahul had "spread fake news and hatred".

The feud between Tharoor and Dubey started after The WSJ claimed that Facebook’s senior India policy executive Ankhi Das intervened in internal content review processes to stop action against BJP’s Telangana MLA T Raja Singh when he made offensive remarks against Muslims.

When Congress leader Rahul Gandhi re-tweeted the report on Sunday, Shashi Tharoor tweeted: "The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology would certainly wish to hear from @Facebook about these reports and what they propose to do about hate-speech in India." Dubey, who is a member of the panel, opposed Tharoor's move.

"The Chairman of the Standing Committee does not have the authority to do anything without discussion of the agenda with its members. Shashi Tharoor, stop Rahul Gandhi's agenda without authorisation by the Committee and Speaker," Dubey tweeted. The BJP lawmaker went on say that a parliamentary panel "should not be made a political platform by members to satisfy the ego of their respective party leaders".

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 19, 2020 08:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).