Facebook Accused of ‘Whitewashing’ India Human Rights Report | Hacker News Reader

Facebook Accused of ‘Whitewashing’ India Human Rights Report

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51 pointsanon26111442 comments

I guess America cares about India's human rights record now that India is trading with Russia and doesn't back Ukraine unconditionally. You coud totally see this coming once India started trading with Russia.

The Indian government, and especially the current government, has been treating muslims terribly for years. But the American establishment didn't have a problem with it until India declared they wouldn't go along with Russian sanctions.

Even US is trading with Russia.

That's what selective enforcement is all about

What do you mean treating muslims terribly?

The current Indian government has taken an increasingly fascist approach towards Indian Muslims. It has been jailing Muslim activists without due course and trials, demolishing homes of Muslims participating in peaceful protests and turning a blind eye to fireband Hindu leaders openly calling for genocide against Muslims.

https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/beyond-blasphemy-in...

https://www.boomlive.in/news/hindu-rashtra-convention-bengal...

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/india...

https://article-14.com/post/jailed-or-punished-with-or-witho...

Hmm these articles quote people like Rana Ayyub who have been known to scam people [1]. And Javed mohammed who incited violence over mere words. As for Bangalore specifically I don't agree with that ideology, but there is an influx of illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas in the city - I will not ignore that either.

Now I wonder if you are aware about what recently happened, where two Muslim men beheaded a man in broad daylight for merely supporting someone's right to speak about their prophet. The poor man just happened to support a BJP spokesperson who was defending her faith. There have been multiple instances where there were massive riots and protests calling for the spokesperson rape and beheading. No to mention a leaked document about islamisation of India [3]. I personally do not think Muslims are being oppressed in light of such activities. On the contrary I think the game of media and setting narratives is being played on an international level to depict India as being anti-Muslim.

[1] https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/journalist-rana-ayyub-... [2] https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/lucknow/clashes-ove... [3] https://www.freepressjournal.in/india/vision-2047-india-towa...

edit1: typo fixed

India is getting an exemption from Russian sanctions because they're considered a counter-weight to China.

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/us-house-of-representatives-...

Facebook is not being accused by "the American establishment". They are being accused by private people, many of them not from the US.

This was actively discussed in the US prior to March 2022, so I don't understand how you can hold that belief.

It was "actively discussed in the US", therefore certain opinions are no longer possible?

Is it Facebook's role to monitor a country's human rights record? I'd be all for it, if that were the case, and it the criteria for human rights transgressions were universally applied.

Nobody is saying that. They just don't want Facebook to play an active role in making things worse.

As the opening sentence of the article says, the report under discussion is specifically about Facebook's impact:

> Meta has been accused of “whitewashing” a long-awaited report on its human rights impact in India

> Ankhi Das, Facebook’s most senior executive in India, resigned in October 2020 after the Wall Street Journal reported she had intervened to prevent the platform removing accounts of members of the country’s Hindu nationalist ruling party, some of whom had called for violence against India’s Muslim minority.

I am not sure it is Facebook’s place to be policing members of the government of the largest democracy in the world.

Facebook claims to follow a content moderation policy [1] for users on its platform. "Members of the government of the largest democracy in the world" is not a justification to bestow some kind of immunity from their policy. They should apply that policy to all users.

[1]: https://transparency.fb.com/en-gb/policies/community-standar...

So… you’re in favor of providing a platform to call for violence against ethnic minorities?

Isn't that the US free speech ideal? Didn't the ACLU use to defend the right of KKK members to hold rallies for exactly this ideal?

let me understand this right holding rallies / calling violence are synonyms to one another all comes under free speech ?

What do you think the KKK would do at those rallies? Share cookies?

Even in the US with its exceptional.free speech laws, calls for violence or.murder are outlawed.

Facebook is a private communication party.... they can be screaming their lungs out on the streets, if their goverments allow it.

I didn't talk about the law, but the ideal.

No, compelling a company to host speech it doesn't agree with is not the free speech ideal.

The ACLU was stupid for defending the KKK and I'm glad they've wised up.

In what way is that "policing"?

In many parts of the world Facebook is synonymous to Internet. If you can't post on Facebook, you're pretty much toasted as a public figure.

That brings to mind a certain orange fellow; but he doesn't seem to be toast (not yet).

US is quite diverse with Twitter. Which is let’s say… not so popular in many other markets.

Then the largest democracy in the world is free to make their own social media.

I can imagine outcry if India banned Facebook :D but they banned TikTok, so maybe FB time will come too.

Accessible version: https://archive.ph/o7tfG

For overall context, the current Indian government has taken an increasingly fascist approach towards Indian Muslims. It has been jailing Muslim activists without due course and trials, demolishing homes of Muslims participating in peaceful protests and turning a blind eye to fireband Hindu leaders openly calling for genocide against Muslims.

https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/beyond-blasphemy-in...

https://www.boomlive.in/news/hindu-rashtra-convention-bengal...

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/takeaway/segments/india...

https://article-14.com/post/jailed-or-punished-with-or-witho...

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