Ankhi Das, Facebook's director for public policy in India files police complaint citing threats on social media

NEW DELHI: Ankhi Das, Facebook‘s public policy director for India has registered a police complaint on Monday citing threats and offensive messages on social media platforms.

Das has cited the article by The Wall Street Journal in her complaint and has said the threats are in relation to the report. Das did not respond to an email seeking comments.

Facebook did not respond to queries seeking comments. As per media reports, Das has said in her complaint that since the evening of August 14, she has been receiving violent threats to her life and and is ‘extremely disturbed’ by the relentless harassment meted out to her. She has mentioned a few accounts on Twitter and Facebook in her complaint. She has also reportedly said in her complaint the content maligns her reputation based on a news article and she is subjected to name calling, cyber bullying and online eve teasing.

Citing current and former Facebook employees, The Wall Street Journal report on August 14 alleged Das, Facebook’s public policy director for India, South and Central Asia opposed applying hate speech rules to posts by BJP leader T Raja Singh and three other BJP leaders and groups flagged internally for promoting violence.

As per the report, current and former Facebook employees told The Wall Street Journal, Das’ intervention is part of a broader pattern of favouritism by Facebook towards BJP and ‘Hindu hardliners’.

The report also stated in April last year, before voting began in India’s general elections, Facebook announced it had taken down inauthentic pages tied to Pakistan’s military and the Congress party but did not disclose it also removed pages with false news tied to the BJP because Das intervened.