Congress Seeks Probe into Facebook's Treatment of Modi's Party

On Sunday, India's main opposition Congress party called on a parliamentary commission to probe what Facebook's India team claimed was preferential treatment by the country's governing party, reports Reuters.

Citing a report published by the Wall Street Journal on Friday, the party said Facebook employees and WhatsApp overseeing Indian content had refused to bar Prime Minister Narendra Modi 's party lawmaker who had made incendiary comments in order to protect the company's "commercial interests."

Alternatively, the remarks were removed, the Congress Party added.

Facebook reported that it banned hate speech and material that incited violence and applied these policies internationally without regard to any political stance or party affiliation.

"While we know there is more to do, we're making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy," it said.

India's government did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.

WhatsApp, which counts India as its largest market with 400 million users, is waiting for regulatory clearances to launch a payment platform.

It has invested $5.7 billion in the digital unit of Reliance Industries to serve tens of millions of small shops across India.

"Congress party demands the setting up of a joint parliamentary committee to probe the relations of Facebook and WhatsApp employees with the ruling party," Ajay Maken, spokesman of the Congress party said at a news briefing.

Maken also urged the company to launch an internal inquiry into its Indian oversight team.

"This is an issue of Facebook's global credibility," he said.