Meta Shareholders Call For Assessment Of Alleged Biased Operations In India

While Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta is set to hold its annual general meeting (AGM) on May 31, 2023, a group of Meta shareholders seek action from the social media giant on ‘allegations of political entanglement and content management biases in India’.

The proponent of this resolution is global non-profit advocacy organisation SumOfUs on behalf of activist Mari Mennel-Bell, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC).

The proponent believes Meta’s ‘lack of transparency concerning India presents a clear and present danger to the company’s reputation, operations and investors’, Meta shareholders’ resolution read.

Shareholders have requested Meta to commission a nonpartisan assessment of allegations of political entanglement and content management biases in its operations in India, focusing on how the platform has been utilised to foment ethnic and religious conflict and hatred.

They have also called for an evaluation of the evidence of political biases in company activities, and any steps to ensure it is non-partisan. Besides, the proposal has also asked for assessment of whether content management algorithms and personnel in India are at scale and multilingual capacity necessary to curtail mass dissemination of hate speech and disinformation.

Glass Lewis, a leading advisory service, which manages more than 40 Tn in assets, as well as provides institutional investors with guidance on resolutions has recommended shareholders vote ‘Yes’ on the proposal.

In this matter, privacy rights groupings such as India Civil Watch International (ICWI), Internet Freedom Foundation (IFF), are also supporting the resolution.

“Today, a crisis affects Meta’s reputation, operations, ESG commitments, and, ultimately, its investments. Meta platforms Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp with a rising teleconnectivity are used by most, if not all Indians with internet connections. The widespread use of these social platforms by its very nature bears the weight of social responsibility by Meta, in the company’s largest market,”Apar Gupta, founding director of IFF, said in a statement.

Meta Board of directors have recommended shareholders to vote against this proposal.

“We are committed to platform safety and integrity in all jurisdictions in which we operate, including India, and we have devoted considerable resources to promoting respect for our users and to protecting user safety in India,” the board said in response to the proposal.

“Meta is committed to respecting human rights – and their underlying principles of equality, safety, dignity, privacy and voice – across our business operations. We have devoted considerable resources to promoting respect for our users and to protecting user safety in India. We already provide extensive disclosure on our human rights policies and practices and have published an independent human rights impact assessment regarding potential human rights risks in India,”  a Meta Spokesperson told Inc42.

Meta’s Facebook has been accused often for its role in spreading hate speech in India. Back in 2020, Meta faced wide criticism in India for allegedly supporting the hate speech of several Indian political leaders of the ruling party. Meta’s human rights impact assessment report on India in July last year received accusations that it failed to adequately control hate speech against religious minorities.

Moreover, the Facebook Papers in 2021 had revealed that Meta (then Facebook) had failed to deploy enough resources in the country’s 22 officially recognised languages and had a lack of cultural sensitivity.

Amid these criticisms, Meta also witnessed internal issues including resignations from some of its top leaders in India. WhatsApp’s India head Abhijit Bose and Meta’s India public policy director Rajiv Aggarwal too resigned last November. Further, Meta India head Ajit Mohan also resigned from his post to join Snap.

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