Facebook lacking India-specific hate speech norms is worrying, says Delhi committee looking into 2020 riots

A Delhi government committee, chaired by Aam Aadmi Party MLA Raghav Chadha, during a hearing with Facebook representatives noted it was worrying that the social media giant had no specific norms around hate speech in India.

Facebook India public policy director Shivnath Thukral on Thursday appeared before the Delhi Assembly's Peace and Harmony Committee in connection with the 2020 Delhi riots and told the committee members that Facebook doesn't have explicit India-specific guidelines around hate speech. Instead, he said, the social media giant uses global community standards to identify and curtain hate speech in India, and that the mechanism is robust enough to deal with local issues.