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Facebook, BJP and Narendra Modi: ‘The Wall Street Journal’ exposes FB’s chief India lobbyist Ankhi Das’s role in fuelling communal hatred and poison for “business prospects”. And reveals the conspiracy of silence of Indian media. @WSJ @newley @JeffHorwitz https://thenetpaper.substack.com/p/facebook-bjp-and-narendra-modi-how
The PDF of ‘The Wall Street Journal’ expose of Facebook, BJP and Narendra Modi, which is behind a paywall. @WSJ https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uzEeH_iQqRwlGddUGCQjbNmGFJL5p2mT/view?s=08
From your deep understanding of Indian media, how many newspapers, news channels and news portals do you think will follow up @WSJ’s damning revelations on how @Facebook was being criminally misused by a well-connected FB lobbyist to curry favour with @narendramodi and the BJP?
Surprise. https://indianexpress.com/article/india/facebook-action-on-bjp-hate-posts-business-reasons-6556552/
@Facebook’s chief India lobbyist Ankhi Das’s 2017 essay praising @narendramodi, illustrated with FB’s thumbs-up logo, magically vanishes from Modi’s website within a day of the @WSJ expose of her role in allowing hate speech for “business prospects”. https://www.narendramodi.in/reflections/author/52734b2f
“ @Facebook senior management in India are ‘de facto’ campaign managers for the BJP. @Facebook’s Delhi office is virtually an extended BJP IT Cell”: what @derekobrienmp told the Rajya Sabha in June 2019 quoting from a book. @WSJ
“Get 3 lakh ‘genuine’ Facebook likes each, Modi tells BJP MPs”: While @Facebook’s lobbyist Ankhi Das was internally clearing the path for hate speech, in March 2018 @narendramodi was exhorting his MPs to get on to FB, which was already in BJP’s pocket: https://tinyurl.com/y6m347w6
“[You] now have the gall to question us?”: IT minister @rsprasad’s undignified response to @RahulGandhi makes no attempt to deny @WSJ’s charge of @Facebook petting BJP’s hate mongrels. All it does is take cheap personal potshots, make vacuous claims, and indulge in whataboutery.
![“[You] now have the gall to question us?”: IT minister @rsprasad’s undignified response to @RahulGandhi makes no attempt to deny @WSJ’s charge of @Facebook petting BJP’s hate mongrels. All it does is take cheap personal potshots, make vacuous claims, and indulge in whataboutery.](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfiuKnIUMAIa6cX.jpg "“[You] now have the gall to question us?”: IT minister @rsprasad’s undignified response to @RahulGandhi makes no attempt to deny @WSJ’s charge of @Facebook petting BJP’s hate mongrels. All it does is take cheap personal potshots, make vacuous claims, and indulge in whataboutery.")
No digging by any newspaper, no follow up, no context, no joining the dots—and zero new insights: How the expose of @Facebook’s Ankhi Das by @WSJ also reveals the lack of expertise (and the quiet complicity) in Indian media. https://indianjournalismreview.com/2020/08/17/lead-story-in-just-2-newspapers-and-not-one-new-insight-in-any-how-the-facebook-expose-by-wsj-also-reveals-indian-medias-barren-cupboard/
“We used to joke that it was like she was @narendramodi’s granddaughter”: An unnamed @Facebook executive on its chief India lobbyist Ankhi Das quoted in the @guardian, in 2016. She “never said no” to any information Modi’s campaign team sought before the 2014 election.
In ‘The Net Paper’ today: All the juice on @Facebook, Ankhi Das and @narendramodi that you won’t find in tonight’s news channels or tomorrow’s newspapers—in 32 tweets and 8 links. @AunindyoC @priyankac19 @Advaidism https://thenetpaper.substack.com/p/everything-you-wanted-to-know-about
Four days after @WSJ revealed how @Facebook lobbyist Ankhi Das was doing BJP’s bidding, newspapers are unable to add to a story that has deep ramifications for Indian democracy. But what they lack in reporting, they make up somewhat with editorial comment. https://indianjournalismreview.com/2020/08/18/hold-facebook-accountable-misuse-of-social-media-a-threat-to-democracy-platforms-must-be-agnostic-to-ideology-newspaper-editorials-cant-hide-weak-reporting/
When UPA-2 was shaping a new tech policy in 2012, @Facebook “drafted” a letter that @arunjaitley could use; “targeted” Opposition MPs before a key meeting with @KapilSibal; “engaged” with government nominees; courted and funded a thinktank. @venkatananth https://m.economictimes.com/tech/internet/inside-facebooks-early-days-of-lobbying-in-india-led-by-ankhi-das/articleshow/77603977.cms
@Facebook organised a “technology training programme” for women MPs of the Lok Sabha in Parliament House annexe, despite a bar on foreign entities being allowed entry. LS speaker @ombirlakota’s office sent out invites via SMS, says Mohua Moitra of Trinamul Congress on @ndtv
It takes all the skills of a ‘West Coast’ cartoonist to reveal to the world that the ‘f’ in @Facebook isn’t so flat and two-dimensional. @satishacharya’s superb take on how Mark Zuckerberg’s company provided the ammunition to BJP’s hate mongrels for “business prospects”. @WSJ
11 employees of @Facebook in India demand company leaders to acknowledge and denounce “anti-Muslim bigotry” on the platform: “The Muslim community at Facebook would like to hear from Facebook leadership on our asks.” https://in.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-india-exclusive/exclusive-facebook-employees-internally-question-policy-after-india-content-controversy-sources-memos-idINKCN25F1VW
@Facebook’s BJP-bias mess doesn’t end with its chief lobbyist Ankhi Das; it extends to her deputy Shivnath Thukral, who assisted BJP in its 2014 election campaign. In 2019, he walked out of a meeting when @Avaaz brought up an Assam BJP MLA’s hate speech. https://time.com/5883993/india-facebook-hate-speech-bjp/
@WSJ revealed that Ankhi Das allowed BJP hate-mongers on @Facebook citing “business prospects”. But in her message to colleagues, she deftly avoids naming COO @sherylsandberg, who is tasked with monetising FB’s “assets”. https://thenetpaper.substack.com/p/facebook-bjp-and-narendra-modi-how
It took journalists from @WSJ, @TIME and @ReutersIndia to bell the #AnkhiDas cat. The entire Indian media universe willingly ignored @Facebook’s insidious role in distorting Indian society and democracy—or was happily cutting “partnership” deals and eating the crumbs thrown at it
