Parliamentary panel not satisfied with Facebook's answers on citizens' rights, to summon officials again

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The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information and Technology is not yet satisfied with the answers given by Facebook India in the matters of citizens' rights and has decided to call Facebook representatives again.

According to sources, the Parliamentary panel discussed allegations made by a whistleblower of Facebook at a meeting held on Monday.

Responding to a question posed by a panel member, Facebook officials totally denied the whistleblower's allegations, saying there is no truth in such allegations.

According to sources, the committee also asked Facebook officials as to what kind of mechanism they have in place to identify and remove hate speech and unparliamentary words considering the fact that India has so many languages, and what software it uses.

In the meeting, there was also a discussion on calling whistleblower Sophie Zhang before the committee. Zhang has accused the social media giant of bias and lack of proper regulation and has submitted a dossier to the parliamentary panel. She had also made serious allegations against Facebook regarding the Delhi Assembly elections.

A final decision in this regard will be taken by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.

According to sources, Facebook representatives will be summoned in the next meeting of the committee headed by Shashi Tharoor and along with this, the officials of the Ministry of Electronics and Information and Technology will also be called to know the side of the government on the whole issue.

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