Derek O'Brien writes to FB, questions its bias against Trinamool

Derek O'Brien. Pic/AFP

A day after Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wrote a scathing letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg complaining about his social media platform's bias against right of centre; it appears a similar letter was shot by Trinamool's Derek O'Brien, even earlier, making similar allegations of bias against the Trinamool Congress.

With the 2021 elections tipped to be the mother of all battles in the state, where the BJP wants to unseat the Mamata Banerjee-led government, Facebook seems to be the common enemy.

In the letter dated August 31, O'Brien wrote, "With the election in the Indian state of West Bengal just months away, your company's recent blocking of Facebook pages and accounts in Bengal also points to the link between Facebook and BJP." "There is enough material now in the public domain, including internal memos of senior Facebook management, to substantiate the bias."

He also said that the role of Facebook in the last two general elections was raised in the parliament of India in June 2019 by the Trinamool Congress. "We, the All India Trinamool Congress, India's second-largest opposition party, have had serious concerns about Facebook's role during the 2014, 2019 general elections in India," he said.

Probe sought against Facebook's 'links with BJP'

CPI(M) MP P R Natarajan has written to Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, who is the chairman of the parliamentary panel on information and technology, demanding criminal investigation into Facebook's alleged links with the BJP. Nararajan, an MP from Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, took note of the notice that the committee had served to the social media company for its alleged questionable practices in India and promoting hate.

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