Delhi riots: Assembly’s peace and harmony committee panel to resume proceedings today

This comes after the Delhi legislative assembly panel told the Supreme Court last Tuesday that it had summoned Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan as a witness to ascertain the social media platform’s views on whether it contributed in any way to the build-up of the February, 2020 communal violence in the Capital.

The Delhi assembly’s peace and harmony committee will resume on Monday its proceedings to investigate the complaints it received against social media company Facebook for allegedly failing to take down hateful content posted on its platforms, especially during the northeast Delhi riots, the panel said on Sunday.

A video journalist stands near a car burnt during last week’s violence in north-east Delhi over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), at Shiv Vihar, in New Delhi on March 3, 2020. (Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

“In continuation of the previous proceedings, the committee under the chairmanship of Raghav Chadha has decided to call upon some further witnesses, in light of the allegations and issues of grave concern raised in the complaints against the social media platform. Following persons have been thus, sent a formal notice for appearance before the committee on 12.10.2020 with a view to carry out the relevant proceedings: 1. Prabir Purkaystha: Editor- NewsClick, engineer and a science activist in the power, telecom and software sector; 2. Pratik Sinha: Author and co- founder of the non- profit fact- checking website- Alt News,” the committee said in a statement on Sunday.

This comes after the Delhi legislative assembly panel told the Supreme Court last Tuesday that it had summoned Facebook India vice-president and managing director Ajit Mohan as a witness to ascertain the social media platform’s views on whether it contributed in any way to the build-up of the February, 2020 communal violence in the Capital.

The Delhi assembly’s committee wanted to elicit suggestions on how social media platforms could be used to strengthen unity among citizens in the future and Facebook executives were summoned as witnesses, not as accused, an affidavit filed by deputy secretary Sadanand Sah said, adding that no coercive action was intended.

Mohan and Facebook moved the Supreme Court on September 22, challenging the September 10 and September 18 notices issued by the assembly committee.The summons stem from the committee’s decision to look into Facebook’s role following several foreign media reports that purported to show the social media company may have acted in a political partisan manner.