Facebook ignored its hate speech policy and allowed anti-Muslim posts on its platform to avoid ruining the social media company's relationship with India's governing party, says a report in the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ report published on Friday said a top Facebook executive in India refused to apply the company's hate speech rules to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politicians and other "Hindu nationalist individuals and groups". The WSJ said the right-wing politician had demanded mainly-Muslim Rohingya refugees be shot, called India's Muslims traitors and threatened to demolish mosques in his Facebook posts and public speeches. In March this year, the report said, Facebook employees responsible for policing the platform found Singh had violated their hate speech rules and suggested banning his account. It said the company deleted some of Singh's hate posts after the newspaper made queries, removed the blue tick mark signifying a verified account and was "still considering whether a ban is warranted".

Source: Wall Street Journal August 15, 2020 19:59 UTC