Facebook’s misinformation and violence problems are worse in India

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s leaks suggest its problems with extremism are particularly dire in some areas. Documents Haugen provided to the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and other outlets suggest Facebook is aware it fostered severe misinformation and violence in India. The social network apparently didn’t have nearly enough resources to deal with the spread of harmful material in the populous country, and didn’t respond with enough action when tensions flared.

A case study from early 2021 indicated that much of the harmful content from groups like Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Bajrang Dal wasn’t flagged on Facebook or WhatsApp due to the lack of technical know-how needed to spot content written in Bengali and Hindi. At the same time, Facebook reportedly declined to mark the RSS for removal due to “political sensitivities,” and Bajrang Dal (linked to Prime Minister Modi’s party) hadn’t been touched despite an internal Facebook call to take down its material. The company had a white list for politicians exempt from fact-checking.

Facebook was struggling to fight hate speech as recently as five months ago, according to the leaked data. And like an earlier test in the US, the research showed just how …read more