Facebook accused of favoring Indian PM’s BJP

A regional party governing India’s West Bengal state has accused Facebook of bias towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to Reuters.

In a letter to Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg, West Bengal’s ruling party, the Trinamool Congress, said the company’s recent blocking of pages and accounts in the state pointed to the links it had with the BJP.

“There is enough material now in the public domain, including internal memos of senior Facebook management, to substantiate the bias,” Trinamool Congress spokesman Derek O’ Brien wrote in an Aug. 31 letter to Zuckerberg.

“Please do all it takes to urgently work towards maintaining the integrity of your platform in the Indian electoral process.”

The latest allegation adds to the clamor of opposition voices which have called out the social media giant for its content regulation practices, Reuters added.

The letter became public just hours before Facebook’s India boss Ajit Mohan was due to appear before a parliamentary panel, to explain his company’s content regulation policies.

Facebook did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment, Reuters said.