Facebook India’s VP and MD Ajit Mohan has moved Supreme Court against notices issued by Delhi Assembly Panel on September 10 and September 18. The notices were issued by Assembly’s peace and harmony committee seeking Ajit Mohan to appear before the panel.
The panel had summoned Facebook India’s Vice President and Managing Director Ajit Dovan twice while probing the February 2020 Delhi riots and the social media platform’s alleged role in hate speech.
“The Committee seeks to compel petitioner No. 1 (Ajit Mohan) to provide testimony on subjects within the exclusive domain of the Union of India. Specifically, the Committee is seeking to make a ‘determination of the veracity of allegations levelled against Facebook’ in the Delhi riots, which intrudes into subjects exclusively allocated to the Union of India,” said the petition.
The plea also argued, ” The summons violates the fundamental right under Article 19 (Right to speech and expression) and Article 21 (Right to life and personal liberty)guaranteed under the constitution. By targeting Facebook – a platform that allows users to express themselves – the summons create a chilling effect on the free speech rights of users of the Facebook service.”
The petition is likely to be heard by a three-judge bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul.
The committee is probing the matter after receiving a bunch of complaints from the public after the Wall Street Journal published an article named “Facebook hate speech rules collide with Indian politics”.
